The Big News: Roddy Piper couldn’t get a fight out of Vince McMahon, but Randy Orton sure could get a fight out of Kofi Kingston.

Show Analysis:

Roddy Piper opened the show backstage. He was with character actor Luis Guzman, since I guess they feel a week can’t go by without them shilling some random movie. Piper then introduced the Iron Chef, which turned out instead to be the Iron Sheik. Sheik ranted and raved whenever Hulk Hogan’s name was mentioned and even beat up a Hulk Hogan action figure with an Iron Sheik action figure. They then cut to a new introduction with new music for Raw.

Miz beat MVP in a fun opener. Miz did some mic work before the match which worked great because the crowd was really hot. Miz reprimanded the Yankees for buying a title while he earned his. MVP dominated the match with slams, punches, clotheslines, a face buster and balling. Miz avoided the playmaker but then walked into a yakuza kick for a two count. Miz then hit the skull crushing finale for the pin. Miz carries himself very well as US champion.

Santino Marella beat Chavo Guerrero. Santino came out heavily clothed in a bunch of New York attire and proceeded to take off a Rangers jersey, Giants jersey, Knicks jersey, Jets jersey, Mets jersey and Phillies jersey leading to a Yankees jersey at the bottom. Chavo hit the tree amigos. They then did a spot where Chavo kept going to the top but Santino would roll to the other side of the ring. Finally Hornswoggle came out to distract Chavo for the 323rd time and Santino got the pin.

DX came out following the match. They said that they will work as a unit at Survivor Series. They then called Hornswoggle out from under the ring. They teased that they would let Hornswoggle join them but instead HHH gave him the pedigree. I think this was supposed to be a face spot, and it certainly was with me, but the crowd for whatever reason greeted it as a heel move. Michael Cole explained afterwards that Hornswoggle was acting like a petulant child, and I’m with Cole on this one. DX carried Hornswoggle out on a DX stretcher.

They aired a great video package looking back on famous WWE moments in Madison Square Garden. Chris Jericho and Roddy Piper met backstage. Jericho felt disrespected by Piper. Piper brought in Chris Masters for more pec dancing and blew his nose repeatedly.

Melina beat Alicia in a lumberjill match to retain the women’s title. An actor from 30 Rock did the ring introductions and was the big focal point here for whatever reason. Oh well. At least it wasn’t Rhonda Shear. All the Raw and Smackdown women were at ringside. I don’t care when they do the constant intermingling, but it does drive me absolutely nuts when they then try to hard sell brand differentiation. The match itself was better than most recent Melina matches. Alicia hit a tilt-a-whirl back breaker but was caught with the last call for the pin.

Roddy Piper came out to the ring. He said that he walks out to a standing ovation at MSG every time, and that’s because of the fans. You know, I wake up in the morning and there’s light every time, and that’s because of the sun. Piper did a kind of rambling nostalgic promo, clearly having a lot of fun. He said he wants one more match with Vince McMahon, which is when things picked up.

Piper referenced getting fired for his Real Sports interview, and that brought out Vince. Vince made fun of Piper’s appearance. Piper made fun of Vince’s flashy pinstripe suit. Vince said he looks better than all the wrestlers and he has beaten them all. Vince added that he is officially retired. Piper called Vince a coward and again challenged Vince to come out later for a fight. This was very compelling television. It had an unpredictable feel that today’s controlled WWE environment rarely has.

Sheamus issued an open challenge but nobody came out so he beat up some random old guy at ringside. He then kicked Jerry Lawler and Lawler was helped out. Matt Striker was the replacement and made a remark about an opportunity opening up that made me wonder if this might not be just another short term angle with Lawler. I guess we will see next week. I hope Lawler stays in his spot. I enjoy him in his role and I don’t care much for Striker as an announcer. They announced a three hour Raw Thanksgiving next week with Jesse Ventura as guest host.

Jack Swagger beat Evan Bourne in basically a squash. Swagger controlled things early with a clothesline to the back of the head. Bourne hit a leaping knee and double knee off the ropes, but was then caught with the Oklahoma Stampede into a doctor bomb for the pin. This is such crappy booking.

To begin with, they just did the exact same angle two times in a matter of months, with Bourne winning one week in an upset and then Swagger killing him the next week. And of all the angles to shamelessly rerun, this was quite the selection. Bourne’s treated like a joke and Swagger’s the guy who lost to the joke twice now. You know you’re doing an awful job of booking when you give television time to two guys two straight weeks and they both come out worse off than they went in.

Roddy Piper came out for his challenge to Vince McMahon. Randy Orton appeared instead. He beat up Piper with punches and kicks. He went for the punt. Kofi Kingston was supposed to make the save but was waiting for a music cue that came late (I don’t understand musical intros for impromptu brawls in the first place), so Orton had to just pull up on the kick and wait for Kingston.

Kingston and Orton then had a hot, fantastic brawl. They brawled all over the building. Orton was dominant early on but Kingston took control after countering a punt attempt. Kingston teased putting Orton through a table but the referees pulled him off. Kingston then broke free, ran back, and hit a high double leg drop through a table. They have done a fabulous job building up Kingston. Please, please, please follow through.

John Cena & Undertaker beat Chris Jericho & Big Show and HHH & Shawn Michaels. Cena cut one of his obnoxious cutesy promos before the match. The average age of these six Survivor Series headliners is 39 years old. That’s the average. They’re slowly morphing into the AWA. The match featured three legal men in the ring at all times which was weird and chaotic. They did a whole bunch of moves.

Michaels hit an elbow off the top on Jericho. He went for sweet chin music but Cena cut him off with shoulder blocks and the five knuckle shuffle. He went for the FU but HHH tagged himself in. HHH gave Cena a high knee, face buster and spine buster. He went for the pedigree but Show broke that up. Michaels hit sweet chin music on Show. Jericho hit the code breaker on Michaels. Undertaker hit the choke slam on Jericho. HHH clotheslined Undertaker to the outside. Cena hit the FU on HHH for the pin. And after the match, Undertaker hit the tombstone on Cena.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this show. MSG events are pretty much always a lot of fun. I thought the two highlights were the Piper/McMahon segment and the Kingston/Orton brawl. The broken record is now decomposing, but for the love of God I hope they freshen up the main event mix after Survivor Series.