RAW Retort – Triple H loses control

Starting RAW with HBK is guaranteed to make the fans happy. HBK was a bit repetitive tonight, but he set up well for Orton, and worked really well against him. I thought it was smart to try to turn Orton’s hometown fans against him, but the dirty tactics didn’t work well, and the fans didn’t turn on him the way the writers had planned. The thing that hurt Orton the most with the fans was his attack on HBK. HBK did well to fight back, not bad for a man who hasn’t worked the ring in how long?

Miz fights back

I don’t understand how Miz so easily got the upper hand on Orton after being beaten down so badly in the past, but that’s WWE booking for you. I have to admit it was nice seeing the unstoppable Orton being slowed down by the likes of Miz, and it might be because they’re realizing they don’t have enough strong faces in the company for Orton to work against right now, so maybe they shouldn’t be making people like Miz look so weak, even though it was Miz’s hometown beat-down. And speaking of hometown beat-downs, so much for Orton getting one! I guess he’s too high on the roster to rate one of his own.

On the other hand, I love how they’re booking Miz with The Wyatt Family. Putting Bray on the stage, suddenly appearing there in his rocker, and not doing anything but talking pushes their slowly growing storyline forward, while also keeping Bray off his feet and letting his possible injury heal. Brilliant booking by the hands of WWE creative. I can’t wait to see where this storyline is going to lead, and I hope they lead us there slowly, because theses slower storylines seem to be working out so much better for the WWE right now.

Dancing for cobras

I love Fandango working against Santino. They’re both very funny guys who know how to work the crowd, but I don’t think they were booked to their strengths in this match. Both of them felt a bit tentative and watered down this week. Hopefully that’s only because Tons of Funk was also in a match and brought a bit of their own silliness to the ring. Honestly, I wish they’d stick to one strong comedic segment each week, rather than two wishy-washy ones.

Taunting the GM

I really don’t understand Maddox. One week he’s absolutely horrible on mic, can barely remember his own name, the next week he comes off as strong and self assured. I used to think it was because Maddox couldn’t handle himself on mic, and that was the reason early on, but these days I have to blame it on the booking. I think, like with Steph and Trip, creative needs to decide who they are, and stick to it. You cannot have strong characters if they’re changing whether they’re heel or face depending on creative’s moods.

Petitioning for Big Show

I was shocked when I heard that the WWE was going to be using Xavier Woods in the WWE storyline. I’ve been a huge fan of his since he was Consequences Creed in TNA. I thought he should have been brought up quite a long time ago as he has solid ring skills, and I know he’s been touring with the house shows as I saw him live a couple years ago locally. Having him putting a petition out for Big Show to return seems strange to be, but hopefully they have a plan to make it work better than what I’m seeing from it right now.

We’re getting the horns

I’m already over Los Matadores. Honestly, the creativity of character, and the ring work they’ve been showing has been stronger than I expected from them, and I wouldn’t be this annoyed by them if they were facing anyone but 3MB. This was their third RAW, their fifth televised match, and all of them have been with 3MB. We get it, they work well together, it’s time to move on and do something interesting with Los Matadores, if they’re able to.

Bosses are all heels

It’s about time Steph and Trip are all out heels. There was nothing riding the fence about this segment. Steph showed her heel side when she was talking about how she’d been too nice and it was taken as weakness. Then Trip really stepped things up with his growling, yelling, and then deeply calm voices. He played all the emotions, and they were all a bit scary. They took things to a whole new level after ADR beat up Bryan outside the ring with Steph’s calm, “Oh, Bryan, you were saying something? I guess you’re finished.” And then Trip starting the “YES!” chant himself. Brilliant moves, both of them.

What wasn’t brilliant was ADR blatantly slapping his own leg to get a wonderful noise when his book landed on Bryan’s face, except that the leg slap and the boot to the face were not timed well and the sound wasn’t at the right time. Also, Bryan appeared with quite the bruise later in the show, and that’s not something that should have happened from a move that ADR has used so regularly in the ring.

5:44 on the clock

Just recently Trip has decided that he wants the WWE to move away from scripted matches and more toward matches being called in the ring as they go. The biggest moves and the ending will still be decided, but he thinks that when the moves are called by the wrestlers in the ring, the matches have more spice, spark, and excitement to them.

He knows that he can’t force the wrestlers who don’t know how to call matches to suddenly start calling them in the ring, but he’s pushing that the younger wrestlers learn how to do this so that the WWE will eventually all be back to being called in the ring. Obviously, like everything else, there’s some who will be better at this than others.

Stone Cold Steve Austin has bad hearing in one ear, and has all of his wrestling career, so he learned that he needed to be the one to call the matches in the ring, or he can’t hear what the other person is saying, and makes a hash of it.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because Ryback very obviously called this match with R-Truth. The problem was that it was obvious that he was calling the match. It’s almost an art form to call a match so the fans can’t see it, but the way he called this match, my ten year old daughter who hasn’t been watching wrestling for very long would have noticed how obvious and bad it looked.

A good friend of mine was called out by Ryback this week on Twitter for the things he wrote about Ryback not being a main event wrestler, but then the tweet was edited to remove my friend, and correct his spelling, when Ryback got to the arena for RAW. It’s obvious that Ryback got in trouble for what he wrote, and was told to change it. This is just one more of those things that Ryback has done to prove that he’s not very professional, and surely will never be a top player in the WWE.

Steph get evil with Brie

I have to say that Steph was really strong when she was so mean to Brie and Nikki backstage. Further, the Bella twins, especially Brie, handled themselves really well with Steph. I can’t imagine how hard it is to play a character against someone when you know they’re a much different person in real life, but they’re playing themselves on camera. It has to be odd for them all.

The biggest swing so far

As soon as I realized Tons of Funk was working with The Real Americans, I wondered if Cesaro was going to be trying execute the giant swing on someone. Much of this match was lost for me as I wondered if one of the big guys would be swung by Cesaro. I do have to say I’m glad he didn’t do it in the match, because seeing his feats of strength left me in awe. He lifted and flipped Sweet T, then his the neutraliser on Funkasaurus as if he was half the size.

After the match Cesaro did struggle to swing Sweet T, but he did it, and made it look good. Cesaro is the strongest man, pound for pound on the WWE roster, and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to let him do next, now that they’re letting him show some of the personality that made him worth watching in ROH, one of the reasons he was brought into the WWE.

Divas break the boredom barrier!

I have said recently that I thought Brie had advanced quite a bit in the ring recently, and it looks as though Tamina has advanced a lot herself. Brie and Tamina worked that ring hard, and looked pretty good doing it. There were a couple botches, but compared to what we’ve seen from the Divas over the past couple years, this was just great! I hope Brie continues to improve, as well as the rest of the Divas roster, because more matches like this one can only be great for the Divas Division.

5:33 on the clock

I actually really enjoy Beat The Clock Challenges. They make regular matches that much more exciting. That being said, I enjoyed watching Punk in the ring, because I always do, but I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief that Axel would be able to get over on Punk so easily. Punk was WWE Champion for 434 days, and then he can’t handle the liked of Axel for five minutes. I absolutely cannot believe that, no matter what way it’s served up. The only good thing coming out of this is that Heyman is going to be stuck inside a Hell In A Cell with Punk in a couple weeks.

ADR falls short again

I have to say that I was more impressed with ADR’s work in this match than I have been in a while, but I think that’s because Bryan can make almost anyone look that much better in the ring. ADR looked stronger in some way, but he also botched a number of moves that he should have hit without issue.

Looking back I’d like to think that it’s because ADR isn’t used to working matches as long as this one lately, but most of the botched moves were not far into the match.

Actually, the first botch wasn’t even in the match, it was when ADR attacked Bryan outside the ring in front of Trip and Steph. When Bryan waited for ADR in the ring before the match started, he was nursing a swollen cheek and a growing bruise.

For me, that screams botch, as bruises shouldn’t be happening from a simple kick like that, especially when it’s something a wrestler uses regularly, the way ADR does.

Then, early in the mat, ADR was kicking on Bryan in a corner, but the kicks looked very tired, not at all the vicious ADR we’re used to seeing. Then, at the end of the match, ADR throwing punches on Bryan on the mat looked both weak, and terrible. ADR’s blows were landing nowhere near where they should have been landing on Bryan. Such a sad showing by ADR.

On the other hand Bryan also had an obvious botch in this match. When ADR came off the corner with his missile drop kick, Bryan jumped way to early to take the move and made it look a total mess. I have to admit it’s nice to know that the best wrestler on the WWE roster screws things up himself sometimes.

But I loved how the Bella twins handled themselves in this segment. They have proven their worth more and more with Bryan, and I expect that to grow even more when Cena returns and they show some of his relationship with Nikki Bella.

The way RAW should end!

What a fantastic ending to such a strong episode of RAW. I have to say that this episode seemed to be more thoughtfully booked, and finished much earlier than ten minutes before showtime, even if we don’t know the answer to that as of yet.

When I read that the Rhodes brothers would be challenging for the Tag Team Championships, I knew it was going to be a good night for them. I knew they would be walking out with gold. Even when it was made into a No DQ Match, I knew someone would be appearing to help them out. I should have thought of Big Show, but I was writing the RAW Results as fast as my fingers could go, and I didn’t even think of Big Show at the time, even though he was the obvious choice.

Other than Ambrose getting involved, the Rhodes brothers looked as though they could have won this match on their own, but Ambrose is why Trip and Steph made this a No DQ Match. Honestly, I’m blown away by the way Cody and Goldust continue to grow and impress in the ring. Both of them look better than ever, even though both of the brothers each had an obvious botch in the match. I cannot wait to see the two of them grow even more, something I didn’t expect from Goldust at this point in his career, but he’s obviously still full of surprises.

Obviously Trip is really upset about The Shield losing the Tag Team Titles, and that Big Show caused more troubles, but in all of that going down, this was one of the best ending to RAW we’ve seen in a while, and that’s saying a lot after how great RAW ended last week! Looks as though the WWE is on an upswing right now, and the fans are the one who are luckily reaping the rewards.