By: Todd Martin
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Blog: toddwmartin.blogspot.com
Date: 10/19/09 from Jacksonville, FL.
The Big News: HHH and John Cena were given a lot of time for their match. Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels not so much.
Show Analysis:
Since moving to the west coast, I’ve switched back and forth a number of times now as far as getting an east coast feed versus a west coast feed of Raw. With HD now I’m getting the east coast feed again, so these reports will be coming in earlier.
Snoop Dogg came out to start the show with the Bellas and Eve. He announced Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase and Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels for later in the show. Snoop has presence and was good in this role. He then brought out DX. DX and Snoop Dogg should get along well. They have a ton in common.
Shawn Michaels said that was off the hizzle for shizzle, and then DX turned to their opponents at Bragging Rights. HHH noted that both he and Michaels beat Chris Jericho at WrestleMania. Michaels made reference to the Katie Vick angle with Kane. HHH said you can find Cryme Tyme selling unused tickets at Smackdown events. HHH said he couldn’t remember Dolph Ziggler’s name. Then HHH said he had no idea who the other two are (Drew McIntyre and Eric Escobar). I thought the rest of the comments were fine, but that last one had too much truth to it.
Michaels explained who McIntyre was and made fun of Escobar for being with Vickie Guerrero. They mocked Vickie’s weight. DX then brought out Team Raw. They put over Show’s size and Henry’s strength. Michaels called Swagger the All American American American American American while Swagger kept smiling brightly. That was funny. Rhodes took the microphone and said DX are captains in name only. He said that if it were based on talent he would be captain.
Big Show told Rhodes he better not let the team down and nobody else better do that either. Henry wanted to know if that was a threat and a big argument broke out. Kofi Kingston played peacemaker. He dropped the Jamaican accent and HHH pointed that out asking what happened to the accent. I think it’s a good move because the Jamaican gimmick to me felt like a mid-card deal and he’s got the potential to go farther. Michaels announced a five on five test for the bickering partners and if any of them lost, he would be replaced on the team by the person who beat him. This was a clever idea.
Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry and Jack Swagger beat MVP, Evan Bourne, Primo Colon, Chris Masters and Chavo Guerrero (wearing matching video game t-shirts). While I liked this as a concept the execution just buried the non-Team Raw guys. The match was very short. Rhodes hit the roll of the dice on Primo and Swagger tagged himself in and scored the pin. The Team Raw guys brawled afterwards with Show coming out on top.
Randy Orton beat Ted DiBiase. Prior to the match DiBiase said Orton hadn’t been returning his calls. Orton said DiBiase betrayed him and demanded DiBiase not fight back in their scheduled match. So Orton kept striking and shoving DiBiase, while a livid DiBiase didn’t fight back. Eventually it looked like DiBiase reached his breaking point, but he then became sad and a confident Orton gave him the RKO for the pin.
Both guys did a great job here, particularly with their facials. The crowd wasn’t really ready for such a heavy angle with DiBiase in a face role, but hopefully that means they will revisit this premise in a couple months. If they do this scenario again then and DiBiase chooses a different path it should get over pretty big and would be a good final angle for a DiBiase turn.
They did a very nice video package on Captain Lou Albano. They then went to their weekly backstage guest host “comedy.” Jillian Hall wanted a women’s title rematch and began singing “Gin and Juice.” Santino was dressed like Charlie Brown to introduce himself again to Snoopy. They teased Snoop lighting up some weed but instead he lit some scented candles.
Triple H beat John Cena. They gave them 20 minutes and the announcers repeatedly called this a classic. I thought it was good, but not memorable even by the end of the show. I’m also very worried this means HHH vs. Cena is the next feud after Orton vs. Cena.
HHH controlled the match early. Cena tried to come back a few times but HHH cut him off. Cena got the STF but HHH got to the ropes. HHH hit the pedigree but Cena got his foot on the ropes. HHH applied a sharpshooter but Cena got to the ropes. Cena took control with shoulder blocks, the Cena slam and the five knuckle. HHH retaliated with a high knee, face buster, spine buster and pedigree. Cena kicked out again. Cena hit an FU, but HHH kicked out.
Cena missed a top rope rocker dropper. HHH went for a pedigree countered into an FU attempt countered into the third pedigree of the match. This time HHH scored the pin. They shook hands after the match. Cena afterwards did the Hulk Hogan thing while he hung around and moped, waiting for the big ovation but it only got light applause and some boos.
Miz beat Marty Jannetty. Miz was scheduled to wrestle a jobber but Snoop Dogg was annoyed that the Miz dissed Jannetty so he brought in Marty as the opponent. Jannetty got such a non-reaction for his entrance that I felt bad for him, although there were Marty chants later. Jannetty hit an elbow, clothesline, back drop and fist drop off the ropes. However, Miz reversed the tide with a stun gun and won with the skull crushing finale.
They announced NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and Joey Logano will host Raw next week. NASCAR drivers were on my wish list for Raw guest hosts, right between Uwe Boll and Glenn Beck.
Melina beat Jillian Hall. Jillian hit a Samoan drop and went for a handspring elbow but was caught. Chavo Guerrero tried to interfere but Hornswoggle stopped him and Melina hit the primal scream for the pin. Afterwards Snoop Dogg came out and gave Chavo a clothesline and spear. Snoop and Hornswoggle proceeded to dance with the women. Hornswoggle was much more likeable doing the dancing because he wasn’t acting like some spastic mentally handicapped child.
Despite advertising a Jericho vs. Michaels match all show, they simply didn’t wrestle. Instead, Jericho brought out the other members of Team Smackdown. They all came out of the crowd I guess to suggest they were outsiders, but they still had their music, lighting and pyro cued. The Team Raw guys joined Michaels. Vickie Guerrero then appeared to try to stop the teams from brawling but they brawled anyway.
Final Thoughts:
I thought this was one of the best Raw shows from the past few months. It had some good wrestling, good angles, and good PPV build. I also appreciated that WWE didn’t try to hard sell the brand vs. brand concept. It’s fine as an occasional gimmick but you can’t pretend it’s this monumental thing when wrestlers intermingle and switch brands so often. They didn’t do that and I think less was more in making it seem like a fun gimmick.
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