WWE Monday Night RAW 5/28/2012
The New Orleans Arena New Orleans, LA
1. The Big Show's rant to open Raw.
I am not digging the Cena/Show feud at all. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Big Show fan, but I don't want to see him in the main feud on Raw. And as far as John Cena goes, why should I even care about his programs anymore? In two months time he has finished his one off feud with The Rock, Beaten Brock Lesnar, and now he is boring the piss out of me along with The Big Show. Just give the guy some damn direction already. Now that I have said that, we will get a six month Cena/Show program. FML.
Back to tonight's opener, It just went on, and on, and on. At the 15 minute mark I was starting to wonder when he would get to the point...and then it ended. I think Show is great on the mic, but in small doses. The monologue started off alright. I felt his anger when he spoke of how after he was left a 7 foot tall puddle of tears in the ring once getting fired, and the very next segment was Brodus Clay in the ring dancing, he was made to seem like an after thought. But as the minutes ticked by, he began to lose me. But I will say that it seems that they have been able to use Show's turn to rally the Cenation, which is good I guess.
2. Non-title: Alberto Del Rio vs Santino
This wasn't even really a match, so I don't have an opinion about it one way or the other. But if this is leading to a Santino vs Ricardo match, I am so down.
Finish: Santino goes for the Cobra early, but he gets stopped. Del Rio slaps on the Cross Armbreaker and Santino taps out.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
3. Alex Riley gets some TV time...and gets splattered against a brick wall by the Big Show.
I like Alex Riley, last year he had an entertaining feud with The Miz, which I thought was one of the better things going at the time. Riley seemed like he was on the cusp of a big break out when he suddenly disappeared. I know getting destroyed by The Big Show in a backstage segment wont get him a renewed push. But the kid should use every opportunity given him to get himself over, since WWE obviously could care less about him.
4. Tag Team Titles: R-Truth & Kofi Kingston© vs Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger
Speaking of taking every chance to get over, enter Dolph Ziggler. I know that he wont get a push as long as he is stuck with Swagger, so I hope this will be their last shot at the Tag Titles. If he is put back on his own, Ziggler can go places...Once WWE sees what most people have, and that is Ziggler equals money.
This small feud for the Tag Titles has done it's job of getting Kofi & Truth over as a legit tag team, and this match capped it off.
Finish: R-Truth hits Pay Dirt to get the three count and retain the titles.
Winners: Kofi Kingston & R-Truth©
Post Match: Dolph Ziggler is pissed at losing yet another tag match, and takes it out on Swagger and Vicky Guerrero. "I'm better than this, I'm Dolph Ziggler" He screams before walking to the locker room alone. YES! YES! YES!
5. Big Show attempts to take out Santino in the back, but he is stopped by Brodus Clay.
Tonight we get The Big Show vs The Funkasaurus. At least Clay wont be squashing anyone tonight. It's progress, I guess. But I have a feeling that he will be the one getting squashed this time around.
6. Big Johnny takes up TV time that would've been better used with, you know, matches.
He says that the Big Show/Cena match at No Way Out 2012 is now a Steel Cage match (Shocker). He then unveils that HE will be on the cover of WWE '13 and shows off a mock-up portrait of what the cover will be...This brings out the legit cover boy, CM Punk.
Punk then lets the cat out of the bag, and has a huge banner of the true WWE '13 cover dropped from the cieling. This leads to the line of the night.
CM Punk: "I never got to say this to your face, but mine is bigger than yours" Ha!
Punk then tells Laurinaitis to hit the bricks, then destroys Big Johnny's fake cover portrait.
7. Non-Title: CM Punk© vs Daniel Bryan
Match of the night without a doubt (DUH!). I do question why they are giving the rematch to WWE's top bout of the last month for free. But I am not going to complain. I would watch these two face off every week if I could. THIS is what I want to see out of a WWE Title feud.
This was the back and forth WRESTLING match that one would expect. Their styles mesh so beautifully that it's hard to tell which guy is "The Best".
Before we go to a break, that crazy bitch AJ makes her way to ringside. I am usually not for story lines that inject a Diva into a perfectly good feud, but AJ has an insane version of Miss Elizabeth thing going that I am liking. Back from the break Punk is taking a beating from Bryan.
Finish: We get several more minutes of back and forth action before Daniel Bryan pulls the pad off of the turnbuckle. AJ gets on the ring apron to voice her displeasure about Bryan's antics. Punk tells her to get down before running at Bryan looking for his high knee in the corner, but Bryan catches him with a Stun Gun into the exposed steel. 1-2-3 and it's over.
Winner: Daniel Bryan
Post Match: Kane is in to get revenge on Bryan for taking a beating on Smackdown. The Big Red Monster destroys Bryan with a chair, then turns to Punk who is handed a chair of his own by AJ. Punk is able to attack Kane before he gets some of what was given to Daniel Bryan. Punk beats the hell out of Kane with the chair, which sends "The Devil's favorite demon" running.
I don't like Kane being added to this feud, but so far I am entertained by what they are doing with it.
8. Non-Title: Christian© vs The Miz
Lawler and Cole plug the fact that Jericho has been suspended without letting anyone know what went down. Instead they send us to WWE.com for the details. Nice way to get hits on the homepage, guys.
Cody Rhodes is at ringside for this one, but leaves commentary before the end to try to cause a distraction to Christian.
Nice little match from these two. Why not add Miz to the IC Title feud? Like we saw in the last segment, WWE does like to stick random stars into programs. I kid, I kid.
Finish: Christian hits the Killswitch to set up the Frog Splash for the Three count.
Winner: Christian©
9. The Miz bitches about losing to Christian in the ring. Randy Orton then lays him out with an RKO for no reason.
I guess they had to come up with something for Orton to do since Jericho has been suspended. But why waste TV time like this? Isn't Orton a Smackdown star? Couldn't they do this on their own show? Blah.
Backstage: After watching what Orton did to The Miz, Dolph Ziggler tells Vicky that he is done with being in a random tag team with Jack Swagger. Preach on brother, Ziggler. Vicky tells him to let her see what she can do.
Are they plugging Ziggler into a program with Orton in Jericho's absence? If so, this could be bad. Remember when CM Punk feuded with Orton last year? Punk lost EVERY match of their feud that lasted several months. That being said, If they wanted someone who could put over The Viper and sell for him like none other, Ziggler is their man. That being said, Ziggler NEEDS to be put over for a change. He is one major win from being seen as a legit star. Dont be short sighted here WWE. You want to be a star? Then MAKE a star for a change. /rant.
10. It's announced that the WWE Title will be defended on Smackdown for the first time in 8 years as Punk will defend against Kane this week.
I will have to check into that one, I'm calling shenanigans though. The WWE Title was once the property of the blue brand, so how is that possible?
11. Non-title: Sheamus© vs David Otunga
Are you serious, bro? Poor Sheamus, good luck making Otunga look like anything other than a jobber.
Well, he tried but Otunga really is that bad. And what is with all of the Non-title matches tonight anyway?
Finish: Sheamus hits White Noise, followed by a Brogue Kick for the win.
Winner: Sheamus©
12. The Big Show vs Brodus Clay
The Big Show comes out and takes to the mic saying that Clay is an embarrassment and is lesser than even Doink the Clown, before spearing and laying into an all out assault on The Funkasaurus. Kofi and Truth try to stop Show from taking apart Clay, to no avail. Show then crushes the announce table and uses the side of it to pummel Brodus.
This gets the crowd rooting for John Cena in a huge way. I thought that this was impossible, but WWE has managed to make Cena into a force again. Too bad for Clay and The Tag Champs that Cena was a no show tonight, as Big Show continues to pick them apart as the show ends, but not before showing the carnage over again in a replay.
Winner: No Contest as the match never happened.
Final Verdict: This show wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Coming into tonight's episode all we knew was The Big Show would be prominently featured, and we wouldn't be getting the follow up to Orton/Jericho.
The show started out kind of shitty with Big Show talking...and talking. But it picked up in the middle as we got a great TV match between Punk and Bryan and found out that Ziggler will be going solo once again after a decent tag team match that featured "The Show Off". Plus the Christian/Rhodes story continued which is good business no matter how you look at it.
It did dip again with Sheamus vs Otunga, But the final segment, while it ruined the aura of Brodus Clay (bad), it did help to give Cena more vigor (good) at least as far as the New Orleans crowd is concerned. I will have to call the last segment a wash for that reason alone though. Sacrificing a new star in Clay, for an established one in Cena is a good/bad situation. But I guess they feel Cena needs all the help he can get after losing to The Rock. Why else have him beat Lesnar, followed by being made to look like a member of the Avengers against The Big Show as I'm sure where this will all lead.
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