Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of A RAW Opinion. I’m Joe and like always I’ll be taking you through another weekly episode of WWE Raw
We start the show off with the WWE celebrating Memorial Day with a video package.
Video of what happened last weekend at Over The Limit where Big Show helped John Laurinaitis beat Cena. Then they show video of the next night on Raw with Big Show telling everyone why he did what he did and then ending with him connecting with the WMD on Cena.
Big Show starts things off tonight coming to the ring. He talks about how last week he made a calculated business decision. HUGE Cena chant breaks out in the arena as Big Show is talking. Show talks about how just minutes after he was crying in the ring after being fired Brodus Clay was dancing, Truth and Kofi were having fun and the fans were cheering, Show apparently angry the show went on after he was fired. Another giant Cena chant from the crowd. They show video of John Cena doing his Ace Ventura impression on John Laurinaitis later in the show instead of confronting him about firing Big Show. That dragged out too long, there are only a handful of people in the WWE that could or should cut a 15 minute promo and Big Show is not one of them, it was decent at best, then he started dragging toward the end.
Santino is in the back stretching, he’s going one on one with Alberto Del Rio next.
Santino Marella VS Alberto Del Rio is up next. Alberto Del Rio gets a VERY quick win with a cross arm breaker in a non title match.
Backstage Eve Torres is talking to Alex Riley, Riley is trying to suck up to her and Big Show shows up and Eve tells Show that he can pick his own opponent for tonight, Show looks at Riley, who tries to get on Shows good side.
WWE Tag Team Title match up next. Kofi Kingston & R Truth going up against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger. Truth and Kingston retain the titles in a pretty decent match that had some good length. After the match Ziggler is screaming at Swagger, Vickie tries to play peacemaker but Ziggler storms off.
Santino walks down the hall with a trainer, Big Show stops them and starts going at Santino, Brodus Clay saves Santino and gets in Shows face, Brodus tells Show to pick him so he can give him something else to cry about. Looks like Brodus’s winning streak will be coming to an end tonight, unless Big Show gets DQ’ed.
John Laurinaitis comes out next with Eve and David Otunga, he’s still in his scooter. He has a couple of announcements, his first announcement is Big Show VS Brodus Clay is official, his next announcement is Cena VS Big Show at No Way Out will take place in a steel cage, he says that since Over The Limit, he’s become the most popular WWE Superstar ever. Laurinaitis unveiled a cover for WWE 13 with him on the cover, CM Punk interrupted him, Punk goes to the ring, microphone in hand. He stares at the “cover” and laughs. MASSIVE CM Punk chants. Punk says that being on the cover of WWE 13 is a big deal, and that’s why the real person on the cover is a hell of a lot better then him, Punk unveils the real cover and CM Punk is on the cover. CM Punk tells Laurinaitis his job is done here so he can take the hoeski and Carlton (Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and go away. CM Punk takes the big cardboard Laurinaitis cover and puts it in the corner and stomps on it until it breaks.
CM Punk VS Daniel Bryan up next. AJ comes out during the match wearing a CM Punk shirt, Punk looks like he’s unsure what she’s doing. Great match but the ending was very anti climactic. Daniel Bryan exposed the turnbuckle, AJ tried telling the referee about it, she got down from the apron and Punk went at Bryan in the corner, but Bryan sent him face first into the exposed buckle for the pin. After the match Kane came out and attacked Bryan with a chair, afterward Kane turned to Punk, AJ slid a chair in the ring to Punk and Punk sent Kane packing with chair shots.
Christian comes out next, he’s going one on one with The Miz, Cody Rhodes is on commentary for this match. Cody Rhodes distracts Christian, Miz can’t take advantage and Christian ends up getting the win after hitting the Killswitch followed by a frog splash.
The Miz is still in the ring with a microphone, he wants the match stricken with Christian stricken from the record. Miz said he single handedly saved John Laurinaitis’s job, where is his iron clad contract, why isn’t his face on the cover of a video game? Randy Orton interrupts him, Miz starts talking to Orton, Orton RKO’s him out of nowhere. Pretty stupid, I guess they needed to find something to do with Orton since Jericho got suspended and their program has to be put on hold.
Backstage Dolph Ziggler is talking to Vickie, he wants her to get him out of that tag team, he needs to be out in the ring in singles competition.
Sheamus VS David Otunga coming up next. Sheamus gets the win in a match where Otunga didn’t get too much offense in.
Brodus Clay VS Big Show coming up next. Big Show comes out after Brodus with a microphone, Show says he’s actually a fan of his, Show says he thought he was a sellout, but Brodus is doing embarrassing things nightly. Show says Brodus should paint his face and be the next Doink, but the difference between Brodus and Doink, is Doink had talent. Show ran down the ramp and ran over Brodus, Big Show destroys Brodus outside the ring, the bell never rings and the match never really gets underway, Kofi and Truth run out but Show makes quick work of them, Show dismantles the announce table, he breaks I with his foot and takes a piece of the table, he started beating Brodus with it. Big Show then went back to work on Truth and Kingston, destroying the both of them. The show goes off the air with Big Show delivering one final WMD to Brodus and then looking at the carnage he caused before walking up the ramp, John Laurinaitis comes out and raises Big Shows hand.
I thought tonights show was pretty good, the opening segment with Big Show was pretty good until the last 5 minutes or so, then it started to drag a bit.
Daniel Bryan VS CM Punk delivered as usual, great match, but I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, I understand why it was done, so Punk doesn’t get beaten cleanly. And I should add, I love AJ, even more then normal since she’s all “crazy” like CM Punk, I to, dig crazy chicks haha.
Looks like WWE is starting a possible Dolph Ziggler face turn with him wanting out of the tag team with Jack Swagger, I wouldn’t mind face Ziggler since fans are cheering him anyway.
I could have done without Del Rio VS Sheamus since it was a really short match.
Oh and another week without Zack Ryder, although he was trending on Twitter, I don’t understand what it is about WWE, I don’t know why they don’t see the possible gold mine they have in this kid and they don’t do anything with it, but he’s good enough to sell a ton of merchandise for the company, give me a break.
The end of Raw was pretty good, it preserves Brodus’s winning streak but also shows that he’s not unstoppable, it also makes Big Show somewhat of a credible heel again, even after so many heel turns, but we’ve seen this before, I just hope they stick with him as a heel for a while.
I’m going to rate this show a 3.5/5 I thought it was overall a very good show, obviously they’ll never satisfy everyone, I enjoyed the show tonight, I wasn’t expecting that much which also helped things a bit.
I hope you enjoyed reading the column and I hope you enjoyed Raw, thanks for reading.
Ringsidehustle.com 
Did anyone else notice the laugh in the background when Ace said “10 or 20 years”?
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That was me, and everyone else watching lol.
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Noticed it as well.
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That was brilliant
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“Oh and another week without Zack Ryder, although he was trending on Twitter, I don’t understand what it is about WWE, I don’t know why they don’t see the possible gold mine they have in this kid and they don’t do anything with it, but he’s good enough to sell a ton of merchandise for the company, give me a break.”
They gave him a chance and I guess although he sells merch, he doesn’t draw more ratings. There’s a reason why Cena is in the main event more often than the Champ.
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They gave him a chance? They used Ryder to turn Eve heel and to further Cena/Kane lol.
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Yeah, Rydder, just like any wrestler, needs a sustained push.
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Exactly, I’m not saying push him to the main event and give him the WWE Championship, but the way they used him when he was on TV wasn’t a push, that was him being the 3rd wheel in a storyline. The way they’re doing him is dirty, he’s one of the most over guys in the company and he sells a ton of merch. If you go on wweshop.com his shirt is more then anyone elses. Ryder and Miz both have shirts out for $29.99 when everyone elses is $24.99. He’s good enough to suck every penny you can from his fans but he’s not good enough to put on Raw and give a little push to?
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Aparently, when he was at his peak earlier in the year he was WWE’s 3rd biggest merchandise seller.
It’s a shame, especially when WWE are giving mega pushes and sustained air and ring time to the likes of Big Show and Otunga.
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This could be another “test” by Vince to see how he handles adversity.
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They gave him the U.S. Championship. What more do you want? It’s better than being released. I would love to see guys like Drew McIntyre and Trent Barreta get pushed like Ryder got pushed.
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I love how the WWE claims Brodus Clay is undefeated. He definitely lost at least once pre-Funkasaurus.
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Marko McKinzeYo no me encuentro en esa mayoreda. XD Yo apstbaoa por Clay pero con el cambio de Pro, cambie9 radicalmente de opinif3n y este1 claro desde hace tiempo que el ganador sere1 Curtis. Teniendo en cuenta lo que ha pasado con Harris, Brodus no tiene nada que hacer y no pinta nada que tenga una oportunidad por los Tag Titles con Del Rio. Por el contrario, Curtis y R-Truth por los campeonatos por parejas, tiene “me1s” sentido.
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Interesting deal with Ziggler. Him and Cody might get “traded”.
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Thank God, Ziggler is going back to singles wrestling and I hope they stop wasting his talent and giving him one of the two major titles.
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I’m happy about that to, lets see if they stick with it though, you know how WWE likes to treat us like we’re dumb lol.
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There are rumblings of turning Ziggler face. Good/bad decision?
So far his main heat has been generated by Vickie, they should give him a run on his own as heel and have him cut his own mic work for a bit to see how he gets over before they start making rash turns. (typical WWE)
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I didn’t catch Raw yet so cannot read any of the column or your comments, it’s recorded and will get to watch it later.
HUGE NEWS! We’re interviewing Goldust, if you got questions send them email, twitter or here please!!
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Nifty! Are you gonna do an official column where people can list possible questions in the comment section?
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We got something like 30 questions, so we sent him the best 10 and he answered them. It all happened so fast! You wouldn’t believe how cool he is!
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Cool beans! If I hadn’t been at work, I would’ve asked.
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all youu haters can shut the fukk up !!.. i dont see you makin it big. cm punk or waevter the fukk his name is can go fukk himself.. bicch ass !! guarantee you cb be makin more than his ass. wrestling is for pussy’s like him. fake ass shitt !
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Okay finally watched all of Raw.
I pretty much agree with you Joe. It was a pretty good show. It was so refreshing not having Cena on air.
Bryan and Punk – awesome. Great TV match IMO.
Punk’s segment with John L over WWE 13 cover was class.
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1. Cena just brings this energy to the show that I haven’t seen from others yet.
2. Punk hated his match from last night.
3. “It’ll be bigger than Pac-Man!”
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I can’t believe neither of World titles will be the main event at No Way Out.
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Hot Rod on TV is always a plus, yet, there did seem to be a coplue of moments of confusion between the two. Boos weren’t where they expected them and it did throw the promo off a little bit. It seemed to me that ole Piper had left the dead air open too long, Cena then stepped in and sort of took over. That being said, this will be a slow burn of Cena turning heel. Last night was the opening, last night was the perfect opportunity. I like Cena a lot. He’s a hard worker and it’s painfully obvious that he lives, breaths and bleeds the WWE. When I saw him in that documentary Inside Pro Wrestling and his character was the Prototype, I knew I’d see him in WWE at some point.The one draw back I took, from the Pipers Pit, Piper didn’t truly go off like he normally does, and at points he seemed lost.Sending Johnny Nitro off like that was .pathetic. Almost as pathetic as the Diva’s division. I think that the women on TNA are better wrestlers than in WWE. WWE, they are mostly just eye candy for the horny teens in the crowd. Everytime they pull off a more advanced move, I cringe, waiting for one of them to get injured.I have to say, I really enjoyed the ending. Near the end of the match, don’t know if it was a mistake or if the match went true to it’s script, but Punk had pinned DelRio for a 2 count, the crowd erupted into a frantic cheer and apparently didn’t notice that Del Rio had kicked out. The match went on for a coplue of more minutes before Punk finally pinned Del Rio. I got a good snicker out of that.All in all, not a waste of my time, I actually enjoyed it.Thats my .02 and I’m sticking to it.
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Nothing at all memorable about this show. Hopefully, Ziggler will be heading in the right direction regardless of Orton’s suspension.
Oh, and just a little something about the 2.7 rating.
I love how people blame it on Memorial Day, the NBA playoffs, the Hatfields vs McCoys show, all being on at the same time against RAW. Most people are through celebrating Memorial Day by that night (a lot probably before Monday, and some don’t at all celebrate). And, if a show is good and worth watching, you’ll watch it. When the competition isn’t as strong, that’s when we see the consistent, base, ratings in the low 3. range. So basically, when nothing was is on, fans watch RAW.
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How will fans know if it’s a strong show or not, unless they watch it? Viewing patterns have changed. People go in and out. If a segment doesn’t have somebody who appeals to them, they change the channel and return after a couple minutes.
In the ratings report, it mentioned that the core audience did watch the show, but the more casual fans specifically went in and out.
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Definitely. He’s the real deal. He’s got the in ring talent, the mic skllis and he’s proven that he could be an effective face, heel and something in between (like Stone Cold or Taker). If I were the WWE, I’d cash in more on him than on Super Cena. And P.S. They should have given more spotlight to John Morrison. If improved, John Morrison is the closest thing to HBK right now. Could be a good rivalry CM Punk being some kind of Stone Cold and Morrison being some kind of HBK
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It probably didn’t help having Big Show dominating the show, he opened it, closed it and featured in multiple segments. While I understand what WWE are trying to do with Show the end just really dragged and we’ve seen it all before.
I’m really, REALLY hoping this Cena/Show feud doesnt go much beyond No Way Out.
Everything just feels like a filler until guys like Lesnar, Triple H, Undertaker, The Rock come along.
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, i mean just look at him, he looks like he was loitering otudise a liquor store before he came for the interview. Chris will transform this fool into a bigger phony and dance all over his grave. F*** these people rootin for CM punk as well, cuz yall dont know how to let go of the past anyways so turn ya hearing aids on and hear this: MOVE ON!!!!!
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