By: Todd Martin

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Blog: toddwmartin.blogspot.com

Date: 11/02/09 from Worcester, MA.

The Big News: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are big wrestling fans.

Show Analysis:

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne were in the ring to start the show. Miz came out and asked them to have his loss to Evan Bourne last week struck from the record. Ozzy wanted to know who the Miz is. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase came out and wanted a handicap match with Kofi Kingston. Big Show then came out and demanded an apology for what the Raw roster did to him last week. Ozzy apologized, which was funny. Show said he was talking about an apology from the wrestlers involved.

DX came out and whispered alternate suggestions to Ozzy and Sharon. Ozzy made Miz vs. “Evan Bron” for the US title. “Close enough,” said Triple H. Sharon then made “Kobe Kingston” vs. Randy Orton. Show tried to make Cena vs. HHH vs. Michaels but HHH interjected and made Cena vs. Jericho vs. Show.

Miz beat Evan Bourne in a fun short match. Bourne went for some pinning attempts. He hit an enzuigiri and went for the shooting star press but Miz rolled out of the way and Bourne landed on his feet. Miz then hit the skull crushing finale for the pin.

Sheamus beat Jamie Noble. The crowd is still at the point of complete disinterest in Sheamus, mugging for the camera and not reacting to anything in the match. Sheamus hit a uranage into a back breaker and a leaping front kick. He had the pin but picked up Noble. He then kept kicking Noble in the corner and the referee stopped the match. Sheamus kicked Noble out of the ring and gave him a power bomb on the floor. Noble did a terrific job selling and was carried out on a stretcher.

Kofi Kingston did a brief interview backstage. He said that Randy Orton is a bully looking to blame someone else for his troubles. Kingston said he won’t be bullied and won’t back down. He added that he left Orton’s mirror on the car last week so that Orton could see who is responsible for Orton losing the title. This was another good promo by Kingston, who I’m really becoming high on.

Kofi Kingston, MVP and Mark Henry beat Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. This started as a singles match between Kingston and Orton, but Legacy interfered basically immediately. Kingston hit a tope on all three and the Osbournes announced a 6 man tag. The faces were successful early until the heels took over on MVP. MVP eventually got the tag to Henry who hit a corner avalanche on Rhodes. Orton went for the RKO on Henry but Kingston took out Orton. Henry then caught Rhodes coming off the ropes with the world’s strongest slam for the pin.

They did a “Raw’s Got Talent” sketch with Sharon, Ozzy and Great Khali as judges. The first act was Santino biting the head off a Batman doll, which everyone agreed sucked. The second act was Chris Masters flexing his muscles to a song, which was actually pretty damn funny.

The final act was Chavo Guerrero and Jillian Hall singing. Will Jillian’s gimmick never die? It’s a one note joke that was never funny and it’s been going on for years now. Bring back Ron Simmons. At least that one was funny even when it was kind of played out. Anyway, Sharon slapped Jillian and Khali gave Chavo the chop. Hornswoggle then came out for his cameo. This wasn’t good, but I was expecting much worse. They announced Ricky Hatton as guest host of Raw next week, which should be fun. I hope a heel shows clips of the Pacquiao fight for heat.

Alicia Fox won a 6 woman battle royal to earn another shot at the women’s title. Kelly Kelly accidentally dumped Gail Kim first. They’re labeled close friends so evidently one is turning on the other soon. Eve Torres eliminated both Bella twins. Jack Swagger came out, which distracted Eve and allowed her to be eliminated by Fox. Finally Fox caught Kelly in a handspring elbow attempt and threw her over the top.

Backstage, Chris Jericho told Ozzy Osbourne that Ozzy was his hero growing up but said that now he is better than Ozzy. After he left Ozzy asked Sharon, “Who is that joke?” Okay, it’s fine if the guest host says he doesn’t know who Santino is. And I’ll cut them a break on Miz, since he is still a guy on the rise. But it’s astonishingly stupid to bring in a celebrity and script him to say that he is completely unaware of the identity of one of your biggest stars.

Elsewhere backstage, DX told Hornswoggle that if he imitates DX again he will be in big trouble. John Cena came in and defended Hornswoggle. HHH pointed out he beat Cena two weeks ago. Michaels then pointed out they are in England next week where Michaels beat Cena. Cena responded that he has beaten Michaels and beaten HHH as well. He added that they have all beaten each other all the time.

This was the point where I threw my hands in the air in exasperation. They are now at the point where they’re affirmatively pointing out that their matches are stale and we’ve seen every possible finish already. And what was the reason for bringing this point up? Why, it was a masturbation joke. “Beat each other.” Get it? The Bella twins cringed and Cena was embarrassed. Cena and DX did some more goofy comedic interplay to build their title match.

Chris Jericho won a triple threat match over Big Show and John Cena. DX did commentary, which was quite the scene. They went on this long comedy discussion about math, including once again putting over the idiot logic that there are even odds of any result in a skill-based competition. Thank God they haven’t tried a WWE casino. HHH also made a bunch of inside references, referencing people talking into headsets and mocking Michael Cole for vintage over and over again.

Jericho and Show worked over Cena for a while together. Cena came back with a bulldog on Jericho but Show caught him with a spear and Jericho gave him a lionsault. Jericho covered but Show pulled him off. Jericho and Show got into an argument and Jericho slapped Show.

Cena took over on Show and Jericho. He gave Jericho the five knuckle and went for the FU but Show caught him with the knockout punch. Jericho then fell on Cena for the pin. After the match Jericho and Show put Cena in a combination camel clutch/Walls of Jericho. DX tried to make the save but Show caught Michaels with the KO punch and Jericho gave HHH the code breaker.

Final Thoughts:

This show had its hits and misses but I thought overall it was a success.

The Kofi Kingston-Randy Orton program seemed designed to build Orton back up following his title loss, but given how well Kingston is working as a more serious face I think WWE should reconsider how they are going to book the program. Orton is obviously the much better performer overall and maybe the most talented guy WWE has on the entire roster, but it’s not like he’s in great need of help. I think the priority should become to make Kingston look good and see what you can do with him. This is a more important point for Kingston than it is for Orton.