Welcome everyone to another edition of A RAW Opinion, I’m Joe and as always I take you through each weeks episode of WWE Raw, tonights show is a three hour special, with the return of Vince McMahon being plugged, he’ll be evaluating the job performance of John Laurinaitis, also advertised, Alberto Del Rio was forced to pull out of his WWE World Heavyweight Championship match due to a concussion, tonight we’ll find out who takes his spot against Sheamus this Sunday at No Way Out.
We start the show off this week with John Laurinaitis coming out riding in his scooter still. He tells everyone his name again, he gets interrupted by the music of Vince McMahon to a giant ovation from the fans! John tries to shake Vinces hand, Vince says he doesn’t know where that hand has been, he’s out there to give him a job evaluation, he told John to give him one good reason why he shouldn’t fire his “pencil neck butt right now” John messed up and almost said we’re heading toward the 100th episode of Raw, this guy is a joke. Laurinaitis tries to kiss butt as the crowd starts a HUGE chant of “Fire Johnny” Laurinaitis tried calling himself an astute businessman, Vince ran him down for costing the WWE 2 lawsuits from Lesnar, and also “hiring the wrong one legged wrestler” he also ran him down for giving Big Show a huge contract bonus. Sheamus comes out from the back and heads to the ring, Sheamus made fun of him and Laurinaitis said he’s going to go in the back and find an opponent for Sheamus, and he’s going to make him sorry he said what he did, Vince said he better be impressed tonight by every match tonight or Laurinaitis will be fired tonight. Vince stole Laurinaitis’s scooter and drove it up the ramp before throwing it off.
Sheamus is in the ring waiting for his opponent, his opponent tonight is Tensai. Tensai got a near fall with his sit out choke slam, Sheamus ended up getting the win after a Brogue Kick, match got some pretty good time, I couldn’t care less about either guy though.
After the match, we go backstage, Vince said things didn’t start out so well for Laurinaitis, and that is going to be considered “strike one” Vince wants to know who Laurinaitis is going to pick to replace Alberto Del Rio, Vickie suggests Dolph Ziggler or Jack Swagger, Laurinaitis asks Teddy Long what he had in mind, Teddy says tonight put Christian, Great Khali, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger in a fatal four way match tonight, the winner goes on to No Way Out to face Sheamus, Vince likes the match and Laurinaitis tries to say he was just thinking that.
After commercial, Tensai is still in the ring, he’s screaming and beating up on Sakamoto. Well, that was a pretty pointless segment.
R Truth is talking to Matt Striker, he talks about being beaten up by Big Show, he said Little Jimmy was traumatized by it, he talks about how Cena is going to beat Big Show, Big Show hits Truth out of nowhere with the WMD punch, another segment I thought was pretty pointless.
Mixed tag team match up next, Santino and Layla against Ricardo Rodriguez and Beth Phoenix. Beth pins Layla for the win, Ricardo wanted nothing to do with this match so Beth sent him out of the ring and told him to stay out, Ricardo slammed his own face into the ring post running away from the Cobra. After the match Ricardo was bragging, Santino ripped his shirt off and Ricardo was wearing a Justin Bieber shirt.
Backstage Otunga is kissing up to McMahon telling him if he were to fire Laurinaitis, he can’t think of a better replacement then a Harvard graduate, Vince says he likes how Otunga kisses ass, but he hates backstabbers and lawyers, Kofi barges in and says he wants Big Show tonight, Laurinaitis walks into the office and says tonight Kofi takes on Big Show in a steel cage.
Daniel Bryan coming out from the back next, he talks about the WWE Championship match this Sunday, Punk says Kane and Punk both have a 95 pound distraction in AJ. He says Kane and Punk are both in love with a woman that is still in love with Daniel Bryan. Daniel says “Once you go Bryan, there’s no point in trying” CM Punk comes out from the back and interrupts Daniel Bryan, microphone in hand. Punk says for someone who claims to not care about AJ anymore he talks a lot about her. Punk runs Bryan down and Kane interrupts them. Kane talks about the things he’s done in the past and that Sunday he will be the new champion, AJ comes out and tells them to stop, she tells Kane regardless of what he says, she looked in his eyes last week and saw he actually has a heart. She says she knows she hasn’t gotten over Daniel yet, she smiles at Punk and calls him the coolest guy she’s ever known in her entire life. Daniel asks her the point, she says this Sunday, she knows “the best man will win” John Laurinaitis gets on the big screen, he announces Kane and Daniel Bryan are teaming up against CM Punk and AJ. Not quite sure how that’s supposed to help save his job, but alright…
Up next is the Fatal Four Way match to determine the new #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Title. Great Khali is eliminated first. Christian hit a Killswitch on Swagger, Ziggler got the pin on Swagger, eliminating him. Ziggler pins Christian to get the win and become the #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Title.
RyBack up next, all that needs to be said… Yawn. I don’t have to tell you who won. Most entertaining part of this match were the Goldberg chants from the crowd.
Vince is backstage with Hornswoggle, they’re making fun of Jim Ross, wow… Cena comes in and Vince wants Cena to destroys Big Show on Sunday, he said he will beat Big Show Sunday, Otunga comes in and Vince tells him nobody respects a man who kisses ass, he turns around and says “no offense” the camera shows William Regal sitting on the couch.
Up next is the steel cage match between Kofi Kingston and The Big Show. Kofi gets in a few offensive moves, but Big Show toyed with him for the most part, and walked out of the cage after knocking Kofi out with the WMD punch.
Sin Cara up next, his opponent is Curt Hawkins. I’ll say it again, I hate these special lights for Sin Cara. Sin Cara gets the win in a pretty quick match, Hawking got some decent amount of offense in.
In honor of Raws 1’000th episode, John Laurinaitis has invited a former main eventer to compete next.
After commercial, we find out who John Laurinaitis invited back. Heath Slater is in the ring waiting for his opponent, his opponent is… VADER!!!! HUGE ovation for Vader! Vader gets the win over Heath Slater.
CM Punk and AJ are backstage, AJ is freaking out about the match, Punk tells her not to worry because he won’t let anything happen, he tells her to “listen to him and not do anything crazy.”
Up next is the tag team match between CM Punk and AJ against Kane and Daniel Bryan. AJ kissed Kane, Kane didn’t know what to do, he tagged in Daniel and left. Punk took Daniel out and delivered the flying elbow drop for the pin. After the match AJ sat Indian style in the middle of the ring just smiling.
Up next, we find out the fate of John Laurinaitis. Vince McMahon comes down to the ring, he calls John Laurinaitis down to the ring, Laurinaitis doesn’t appreciate what Vince did to his scooter earlier, he also said there is no need for all the security guards he would never put his hands on Vince, Vince called him a horrible businessman, but at least he’s a comedian. Vince is about to fire Laurinaitis, Big Show interrupts and heads to the ring. Big Show says Laurinaitis has made a lot of mistakes, but he made a good decision in hiring him back, Big Show says he can say and do what he wants since he won’t be fired or else Vince would have to pay him millions of dollars, Big Show says Vince made him wear a lot of dumb costumes for the past 14 years, he said not to worry about firing Laurinaitis, he should be more concerned with the “other John” because at No Way Out Cena is going to get destroyed. John Cena interrupts Big Show and comes out from the back. Cena says Big Show blames everyone for everything, and asks him if he’s going to blame McDonalds for putting chicken nuggets on sale. John Cena ran down Big Show. Vince says that if Big Show loses on Sunday John Laurinaitis is going to be fired, Laurinaitis tried getting involved, in a brawl between Cena and Show, Vince tried pulling them apart and Big Show accidentally nailed Vince with the WMD punch.
My thoughts on this weeks episode, I thought it was very good, aside from a couple of parts of tonights show I thought it was very good, I love Ziggler getting a shot at the World Heavyweight Title.
AJ is great, I love her no matter how damn crazy she is lol.
Vince McMahon, enough said. Always entertaining, I also enjoyed the little backstage segment with him and Ryder, I wish they’d put Ryder in a match though.
Overall I give the weeks show a 4/5, if this is pretty much how Raw is going to be every week It’s 3 hours, I’m down with that.
I hope you enjoyed the show and the column, thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week for day after No Way Out edition of A RAW Opinion.
As long as you’re grateful that Ryder was at least there 🙂
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Goofy RAW, but fun. VADER!!!
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I loved how they featured a lot of wrestlers, glad to see Ryder there. I know he just looked with awe at Vince but it was better than him doing nothing. Diva’s were thought of, Natalya was there.
They pushed Ziggler finally at long last. I doubt he’ll win at No Way Out but he’ll have a great match with Sheamus regardless which will help both wrestler’s.
Great to see Vader! Not many remember but he once was WCW champion!
The love triangle of hell is the most interesting thing WWE have going for them. Cannot wait to see who wins and who AJ will screw. I hope Punk walks out the winner.
Show and Cena is just bland, I’m sick of Cena in the main event and not even involved in the title picture.
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I was very surprised (and ecstatic) to see Vader, sadly a lot of the fans today have no idea who he even is.
Ryders face was priceless, and then Vince using his catchphrase, good, Vince knows who he is, now push the guy lol.
I hope Punk walks out as the WWE Champion, but I could see AJ helping Kane, or even Daniel Bryan win.
I’m just tired of Big Show period lol.
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I’m in 2 minds about Ryder at the moment, maybe not seeing him for that amount of time refreshed him for me.
It can go either way and the WWE title is starting to get very unpredictable which is good.
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I just noticed how each person Cena has faced recently has represented something or brought something back. Kane(the mask), Rock(dream match), Lasnar(aggression and diva-like attitude), Ace(corruption), and Show(raw motivation)
It makes me think of the past several main events differently.
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You know what though, Cena was right about Big Show, he’s always been a giant, not to mention Show has been this monster heel about 50 times before, so what exactly is so different now?
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Extra motivation?
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I agree that Ryder needs a bit of an upgrade on his gimmick, but the guy has talent, he has charisma and he can wrestle, he deserves a push.
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Good show which is surprising because 3 hour Raws are usual horrible. I love that Ziggler will get a World title match and the Punk/Bryan/Kane/AJ storyline is great. I hope Bryan wins.
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Absolutely, like I said, if this is what the 3 hour shows are gonna more or less give us, I’m happy.
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I really liked this show, it was a huge improvement from the last three weeks. There was a lot of fun, and almost every match delivered. They made the right decision to make Ziggler the #1 Contender, I loved how they incorporated more history references throughout the show, and am much more interested in the Punk/Bryan/Kane/AJ storyline, completely due to AJ’s involvement. I didn’t see Vader showing up at all, and am now looking forward to see what other former stars show up, leading up to the 1000th episode. You could tell that Vince was having a lot of fun on the show.
There were some flaws, like Vince saying Big Show hasn’t been good since 1999…and now expecting people to pay to see him vs. Cena at No Way Out, and the show did drag (God help us when they present regular three hour shows). I didn’t like the ending, and think the Kofi/Show match could have been booked a lot better. Overall, though, these flaws are forgivable considering how the rest of the show came off, and also, how good the NWO card looks.
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Oh mah goodness!! That was probably the most positive Raw feedback I ever seen you write! haha. Totally agree on the ending.
BTW Joe I didn’t know you wrote the review as it Raw happens, if you want you could do a LIVE Raw opinion? Basically after every match/promo you ”publish” and it’s up for people to read. Just a suggestion, if it doesn’t suit you then no problem!
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What about a RAW/SD/PPV comment blowout where people would type their reactions in the comment section as it happens?
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I’m not so sure it would work with SD, because It’s taped and I believe the UK sees the show before the people here in America.
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Another reason to hate them. lol
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Yeah, the reason I write the column as Raw happens is so I don’t wait and maybe forget a few things that happened lol, I could try and do it that way next week.
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If you have DVR, you could always pause it. Or you could try youtube if you need to watch something again.
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As in one section for all shows to comment in when it’s LIVE? That’s a good idea but the majority of people rather tweet or just watch it without the internet. I guess I could put one up and see how it turns out. I’ll call it ”Smooth Rambling” 😛
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YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!
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Was a decent Raw, well paced and was stuffed with the usual shit 3 hour shows usually do.
Man Vince looks old!
I just cannot get into the Big Show, his promos arent that bad but I no means want to see him and Cena wrestle, especially in the main event. Although I will agree the stipulations do offer some intrigue. SummerSlam match: Show and Big Johnny vs Cena and McMahon.
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Here’s how I see the Show/Cena match ending. Show throws Cena into the cage super-hard and the side of the cage comes off, allowing Cena to win ans Ace to get “fired”. Cena get hurt(kayfabe) so he can have some well-deserved time off. Show doesn’t look week do to the nature of his loss. Ace becomes a manager to Tensai, eventually facing off against Ziggler(after turning face) with Flair as manager.
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That’s quite a plot… Cena out, tensai and Ziggler pushed and flair back styling and profiling? I’m in!
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I try.
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I’m going to watch out for brussels.
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