Raw was good this week, but didn't do much to build to the PPV, more so building up younger talent in Evan Bourne, Daniel Bryan and R Truth. Show started with Edge beating on Bourne in a crazy start and then proceeding to cut a promo on his opponents at Fatal 4 Way which led to Randy Orton coming out and hitting an RKO despite suffering a shoulder injury a few weeks ago at the PPV - silly, oh you better believe it. Ashton Kutcher was 'backstage' (his segments were pre taped) and booked The Miz in a match against Daniel Bryan - great, after months of build up, we are seeing a match on Raw and I thought guest hosts couldn't book matches. The Woo Woo guy had a Twitter feud with Kutcher who promised to book him in a match later.
R Truth beat Jericho in a fine TV match. R Truth had more to gain than Jericho had to lose. Jericho looked distraught after losing, excellent selling. Seem as if WWE are really making the US Champion seem meaningful rather than be another jobber for main eventers and clever booking to put Truth against Jericho, a guy who can genuinely sell to other wrestlers rather than pretending to sell like Triple H.
Santino and Eve Torres beat Regal and Maryse. Kozlov hit a modified Ura-nage suplex on Regal in a swerve after Santino convinced Kozlov that the pair of them would be a good tag team. What an awful tag team that would be. A filler match.
Bret Hart cut a promo and explained next week's Raw is three hours and will feature Smackdown superstars as well. Seriously, name me a week that doesn't happen. This led Ted DiBiase out who talked something about nothing, didn't understand why he was out, maybe to make sure fans remembered him or something. Vince McMahon came out, out of all people. I guess WWE realised that they had to explain the decision to make Bret Hart GM and Vince cut a heel promo and done the usual goofy moves like the awesome strut.
Edge injured Randy Orton with a door to write him out of the main event which he was pencilled in for. He can do an RKO but a door ****s him up?
Daniel Bryan beat The Miz in a two minute match. Raw is now watching how they can book like TNA and this was it. Months of build up on NXT and a match which finished in two minutes. Danielson did some holds and even done the omoplata crossface which I guess might be his signature finisher but he won with an inside cradle. Miz proceeding on beating down Danielson and tried to force Danielson to apologise to Michael Cole, as he was outside the announcers table. Danielson reversed and threw Miz onto Cole, which I cheered.
The Usos and Tamina Snuka came out and delivered an unconvincing promo. Didn't mention who they were as in Rikishi's sons. Snuka got some heat and babbled how her dad was shoved to the corner in Wrestlemania I. Hart Dynasty came out to gain their revenge from last week but the Usos still managed to get one over them and done the same finisher as last week.
Woo Woo Guy came out for the weeks 'comedy' segment. He demanded to find out his opponent from Kutcher. At first, it was King, but then it wasn't. Khali came out, it wasn't him. Goldust came out, it wasn't him. It was indeed Alisha Fox, who was with the Woo Woo Guy. Crap.
Cena and Bourne beat Sheamus and Edge. Originally Orton was planned for the main event but he was injured so Cena drafted in Bourne, who was attacked earlier that night. Very good main event, Bourne selling babyface to give Sheamus and Edge heat for large parts and got his timings well, surprisingly. Maybe the WWE's reluctance to smaller guys is their inability to time moves properly like Kingston but Bourne seemed reasonably accomplished here. Bourne pinned Sheamus for the win and I predict Sheamus beats down on Bourne next week to get his heat back.
With the roster thin, this is going to be a testing period for Raw and they tried to do the right things on Monday night which gets a thumbs up for me. They still have a couple of weeks to build for the PPV so I guess this week's aim was to make Danielson, Bourne, Usos, Truth look good enough to compete at a top level.
R Truth beat Jericho in a fine TV match. R Truth had more to gain than Jericho had to lose. Jericho looked distraught after losing, excellent selling. Seem as if WWE are really making the US Champion seem meaningful rather than be another jobber for main eventers and clever booking to put Truth against Jericho, a guy who can genuinely sell to other wrestlers rather than pretending to sell like Triple H.
Santino and Eve Torres beat Regal and Maryse. Kozlov hit a modified Ura-nage suplex on Regal in a swerve after Santino convinced Kozlov that the pair of them would be a good tag team. What an awful tag team that would be. A filler match.
Bret Hart cut a promo and explained next week's Raw is three hours and will feature Smackdown superstars as well. Seriously, name me a week that doesn't happen. This led Ted DiBiase out who talked something about nothing, didn't understand why he was out, maybe to make sure fans remembered him or something. Vince McMahon came out, out of all people. I guess WWE realised that they had to explain the decision to make Bret Hart GM and Vince cut a heel promo and done the usual goofy moves like the awesome strut.
Edge injured Randy Orton with a door to write him out of the main event which he was pencilled in for. He can do an RKO but a door ****s him up?
Daniel Bryan beat The Miz in a two minute match. Raw is now watching how they can book like TNA and this was it. Months of build up on NXT and a match which finished in two minutes. Danielson did some holds and even done the omoplata crossface which I guess might be his signature finisher but he won with an inside cradle. Miz proceeding on beating down Danielson and tried to force Danielson to apologise to Michael Cole, as he was outside the announcers table. Danielson reversed and threw Miz onto Cole, which I cheered.
The Usos and Tamina Snuka came out and delivered an unconvincing promo. Didn't mention who they were as in Rikishi's sons. Snuka got some heat and babbled how her dad was shoved to the corner in Wrestlemania I. Hart Dynasty came out to gain their revenge from last week but the Usos still managed to get one over them and done the same finisher as last week.
Woo Woo Guy came out for the weeks 'comedy' segment. He demanded to find out his opponent from Kutcher. At first, it was King, but then it wasn't. Khali came out, it wasn't him. Goldust came out, it wasn't him. It was indeed Alisha Fox, who was with the Woo Woo Guy. Crap.
Cena and Bourne beat Sheamus and Edge. Originally Orton was planned for the main event but he was injured so Cena drafted in Bourne, who was attacked earlier that night. Very good main event, Bourne selling babyface to give Sheamus and Edge heat for large parts and got his timings well, surprisingly. Maybe the WWE's reluctance to smaller guys is their inability to time moves properly like Kingston but Bourne seemed reasonably accomplished here. Bourne pinned Sheamus for the win and I predict Sheamus beats down on Bourne next week to get his heat back.
With the roster thin, this is going to be a testing period for Raw and they tried to do the right things on Monday night which gets a thumbs up for me. They still have a couple of weeks to build for the PPV so I guess this week's aim was to make Danielson, Bourne, Usos, Truth look good enough to compete at a top level.
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