‘Sup guys? I am the “One Man Gang” Tom Robinson with the RAW Review. A great RAW it was on Monday being held in Toronto, Canada, which is always a lively place especially for WWE. We had a lot to look forward too. Edge’s return, Goldust vs Randy Orton. Let’s get down to it!
The Returning Edge Speaks Out Against The New Regime… and his friends suffer the consequences
Great opening to the show. Edge made his return to his hometown Tornoto, Canada. Got a THUNDEROUS pop from these Canadian fans. The fans are always great when you come to Canada. It really is “Bizarro World” there. Edge justified the reaction and did some incredible work on the mic. I think when he comes back, he does help with the stories he’s put with. Here he’s helping the Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton feud. Before when he’s made these sporadic appearances, he’s help the rise of Team Hell-No, the Cena/Lesnar feud and even with Christian’s feud with Randy Orton. He’s definetly had the upper-hand in the verbal exchange with Triple H in the opening segment, and he decimated Randy Orton on the mic. He came up with a line to Orton which was something like “While my spine is in a really bad way, I least I have one”, which I thought was a great line. Anyway, after being torn apart by Edge on the mic, Triple H stated while he couldn’t really have The Shield attack Edge or put him in a match since he doesn’t work in WWE, he could go after his friends. And with that, Christian was on the receiving end of a Shield beatdown. Great opening, but again… Randy Orton seemed overshadowed by Edge, Triple H and Daniel Bryan. He only said like three sentences through-out the entire thing, and I’m sorry if I keep saying this every week but he needs more mic time.
Oh on a side note, I love how Tony Chimel has become Edge’s new personal ring announcer. Just whenever Edge returns, Chimel is brought in to unleash his patterned voice-break! XD
Edge and Triple H have an intense backstage segment. Edge gets kicked out.
Edge and Triple H had a REALLY intense backstage segment after Christian got taken out. You can tell that the real venom Triple H had within him as heel came back because of the way he growled at Edge. Triple H could make brushing your teeth sound intense. That’s a quality that I’ve always admired him for. Yeah, at times I’m not his biggest fan, but I love him when he’s heel. You can sort of forget about how you feel about him personally when you see him as a heel just unleashing anger. Anyway, Edge got kicked out and obviously the Canadian fans booed. Both Edge and Hunter were awesome here.
Curtis Axel’s Disqualification Sees Paul Heyman’s Confidence “Slip” Away
Curtis Axel has a rematch with Kofi Kingston (who defeated Axel on SmackDown! in a poor booking decision in my opinion). It proved to be a short match as Curtis Axel gets disqualified early on for being too aggressive and ignoring the ref’s 5 count. This was followed up by Kingston hitting the Trouble In Paradise on Axel post-match, further unsettling Axel’s manager Paul Heyman. Since the handicap match between CM Punk and the team of Heyman and Axel at Night Of Champions is an elimination match, Axel getting disqualified could mean that Heyman would have to step in the ring with Punk. With his confidence in Axel dropping, Heyman dropped to the floor after apparently slipping on some water. Heyman tried to use this as an excuse to get out of the handicap match, until General Manager Brad Maddox had WWE’s Dr Samson check Heyman. After Heyman was cleared, Punk came out with kendo stick in hand and brutally beat Heyman’s personal doctor (which Heyman brought because he didn’t trust Canada’s doctors) with it. I’ve got two complaints…
- I get that Curtis Axel getting beat over and over and Heyman’s confidence dropping is supposed to make Axel look weak as hell in comparison to CM Punk. But, WWE have got to take into account that Curtis Axel still holds the very prestigious Intercontinental Championship. If Axel loses to a regular mid-carder like Kofi over and over, the title loses prestige. And considering the pay-per-view their handicap match is taking place is called “Night Of Champions”, he still needs to look strong against Punk and I don’t think WWE have got it right by making him look bad.
- The fact that Brad Maddox and WWE doctors had to come out to clear the heel Paul Heyman to compete kind of takes away from the supposed evil empire of Triple H if there hindering the heels. Sure, Paul Heyman and Triple H have history blah blah blah, but it makes Brad Maddox almost seem like a face when he’s helping CM Punk. It takes away some of the evilness from the Triple H empire.
And I know a third complaint from you guys would be that CM Punk has had little to no interaction with the Triple H regime yet which completely throws continuity out of the window. But then again, WWE booked themselves into that corner when they decided that the Paul Heyman/CM Punk feud would continue after Summerslam. Having Punk drift of from the feud to confront Triple H in the build to Night Of Champions is not good for his own match. I personally think CM Punk will get involved in the “Corporation 2.0” storyline or whatever you want to call it. I just think it’ll be either after Night Of Champions, unless him and Heyman have some more unfinished business after NoC. I don’t think they’ve forgot about Punk as far as the main storyline is concerned.
Booker T tells Big Show to stay professional
OK, I have no idea what Booker T’s role in WWE is supposed to be anymore now he’s been sacked as SmackDown! General Manager. Two weeks in a row on RAW, Booker T has acted as Yoda to superstars and told them to “stay professional”. Is he just supposed to keep doing this each week or has WWE actually got something for him in mind? Booker T needs something other than this. Put him back on commentary or something. These backstage segments are becoming a little tedious.
Dolph Ziggler’s run in the dog-house continues as he loses to Bray Wyatt
This is a grave period for Dolph Ziggler fans as he is in the proverbial “dog house” of WWE. This week, he went down to Bray Wyatt as he beat him with the Sister Abigail to win. It’s a shame that drops to this level only a couple of months after he lost the World Title. Now it seems like it’s going to be a LONG way back to the top for Ziggler. He tried talking himself out of it by defending the Corporation 2.0 storyline in this article. But I doubt he’ll be anywhere near the title picture in the near future, which is a shame.
AJ Lee decimates Jerry Lawler On Commentary
Yeah, my 2nd top highlight of the show was AJ Lee’s commentary during the 6 women’s tag team match between the team of Natalya, Brie Bella and Naomi from Total Divas and the team of Layla, Aksana and Alicia Fox who are a part of AJ’s new crew. The Total Divas won a very short and un-interesting women’s match. But the best part was the commentary. AJ was at ringside and she just ripped Jerry Lawler to shreds. Really feisty on commentary, She ripped Jerry by saying “I’m a little too old for you Jerry. I’m 26. I heard you like them young” which was a really good line. I put the link to the match and her commentary below. You really should watch/listen to this. Great way to hype up the Divas title match at Night Of Champions.
Alberto Del Rio makes quick work of R-Truth, Fandango distracts The Miz
Del Rio picked up a submission win over R-Truth in preparation to his World Title match against Rob Van Dam. Slapped on the cross-armbreaker, R-Truth tapped, game over. Fandango also distracted The Miz during his match with Damien Sandow, costing Miz the match after Sandow rolled him. This thing with Fandango constantly interrupting matches is really getting annoying, as is this feud. I swear, this feud between Miz and Fandango is so bland and dull as are the both of them. -.-
Santino Marrella Returns To RAW To Upset Antonio Cesaro
A very entertaining match here between Antonio Cesaro and the returning Santino. I loved that Santino was starting to look like a good grappler in the match. Of course he’s a good wrestler, I’ve known that for years. It’s just WWE never seem to let him showcase that talent, and he might be getting that chance to. Also… Antonio Cesaro did one of the greatest feats of strength I’ve ever seen him do, which was in fact my top highlight of the show. He did his giant swing on Santino… and swung him for about 30 seconds non-stop! It really was incredible. Here it is…
Unbelievable strength. And despite all of Cesaro’s swinging… he still lost. XD
Ryback lays out RVD after getting this disqualified
A short but sweet match saw Ryback get DQ’d and follow it up with a Shell-Shocked To Rob Van Dam. The booking for the end of the match seemed a little off. Why did they have Ryback destroy RVD and make him look weak before his World Title match with Del Rio? Especially considering that RVD bested Ryback in a battle royal a month or so ago. They must have something big for Ryback to have him attack the number one contender for the World Title a week before his match.
Randy Orton Dashes Goldust’s chance to get Cody Rhodes rehired
It was a really good match between these two. Mostly because of the build around it. While it wasn’t a technical classic of a match, there was a lot of emotion behind it. Goldust showed that he was still as slick as he’s always been in the ring. The fans were into it and I loved it when Goldust hit Randy with his brother Cody Rhodes’ finisher “Cross Rhodes”. However, Randy ultimately prevailed. It was a really good match with a lot of feel towards. That was added on in the backstage segment afterwards when Stephanie rubbed salt in wounds and called him a loser. She berated Goldust with such vindication. She really has that venom in her voice as well similar to her husband Triple H. Having her do a segment is always great to see.
Daniel Bryan Finally Gets The Upper Hand On Randy Orton
After weeks of the Corporation 2.0 getting the best of Daniel Bryan, Daniel finally got his own back firstly with a win over Dean Ambrose. It was a good match and he beat him clean and beat of the Shield as well. Post-match, The Shield attack Daniel with Big Show being forced to watch on. Then the WWE Champion Randy Orton came down to the ring claiming to have Triple H’s permission to tell Big Show what to do. He instructs Big Show to knock Bryan out just as he did last week, but Big Show refused. Randy said he’d pick him up for Show, but Bryan served up a flying knee to Orton. Bryan then posed with the WWE Title. It’s good that WWE finally give Daniel something to cheer about. It doesn’t make it seem that the Corporation 2.0 is over-whelming Daniel and that he’s actually got a chance. It was a good way to end RAW.
Overall, good RAW in Canada. Great match between Goldust and Randy Orton and some great promos being cut by all sorts of people. AJ Lee, Stephanie McMahon, Edge, Triple H and even Goldust all delivered goods on the mic in build up to the pay-per-view this Sunday. I’ve just got a question… why isn’t the US Champion Dean Ambrose on the card considering he himself is a champion and all titles are supposed to be defended at Night Of Champions?
That was this week’s RAW Review. I’m Tom Robinson. Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Follow us at @ArmbarExpress on Twitter and go to https://www.facebook.com/ArmbarExpress to like the Facebook Page. My Twitter account is @TomRobinson5199 so gives us a follow there as well. Also, its great to see that my Alberto Del Rio article on WhatCulture is getting a lot of views. It’s got 1000+ views since it was published on September 1st which is awesome. I’ve got something else planned on that site so stay tuned. And also, today’s the 12 year “anniversary” of the September 11 attacks. Thoughts and prayers to those affected by them horrific attacks 12 years ago.
Random YouTube video of the POST! A video I’m made of Cesaro swinging Santino… with the sound being replaced by a very appropriate song. Let’s just say this song will spin you right round! XD Someone had to do it!
The Armbar Express 