WWE RAW Retort – Say Hi to Dusty for me

I was worried that they were again going to start RAW with another twenty minute Triple H, Bryan, and Orton segment, but Edge really changed it up!

Edge was good with his mic work

Edge stepped up his mic work, in a way only Edge can do, and really ripped Trip a new one. Edge was strong, worked well and really threw his support to Bryan, while ripping down both Trip and Orton – beautifully done.

Even better was that Trip did the corporate thing of pushing Edge’s show Haven – a show I love, created by a favourite author of mine, set in a fake town in my real home state – because it’s good for business.

Edge handled himself well, and still had a moment with his best friend Christian, even though it was a fake moment as I don’t think Christian has been cleared to work since he received a concussion from working against Orton.

Edge has good reason to be pi**** off at Orton right now – he’s WWE Champ, and hurt his best friend while continuing to be pushed. I just wished we could have had more of Edge and Christian together.

I also have to admit that I expected to see Edge return at the end of RAW. I know he can’t work the ring, or take any bumps because of his spine, but that doesn’t mean he can’t cause a huge distraction!

DQ #1

It did make sense for Curtis Axel to lose his match to Kofi via DQ. It further made Axel look like a loose cannon, and a possible liability for Heyman. That helps the storyline, but it doesn’t help Axel look strong and further his career.

I feel bad that Axel seems to be losing a lot of himself to Heyman’s feud with Punk. Then there’s Kofi, who has nothing to do with all this, but has managed to look solid with two wins over the Intercontinental Champion.

Heyman is the one carrying his side of the storyline, and Axel seems to be led around by his hand through it all. Between yelling that Heyman was hurt and to clear room for him to be examined, then helping Heyman to the ring to withdraw from their match, he was clearly playing second fiddle to the unshaven one.

Heyman, on the other hand, sold every bit of all three of these segments, and sold them beautifully! Heyman is a master at what he does and has some of the best facial reactions in the business.

Between being exasperated, shocked, and pissed, Heyman doesn’t really have to say a word because his face says it all. All that being said, I wonder who the wrestler playing Heyman’s doctor was, because that man took some serious kendo stick shots from Punk, especially that last unprotected head shot.

I know the Superstars are not allowed to throw unprotected head shots with chairs, so why is a kendo stick any different? To me, Punk should be fined for that shot.

Booker T is serious!

I really wanted to see Goldust and Booker T backstage together because the two of them have great chemistry, and put together some of the funniest backstage segments – possibly leading, in some ways, to the relationship between Bryan and Kane.

Booker T and Big Show was a decent segment, and I understand that the storylines are a bit more serious right now with the whole Corporate Evolution thing, and Trip channeling Evil Boss McMahon, but I think that type of moment would have gone over wonderfully, and been a little bit of levity the show really needed.

Loose lips sink ships!

Dolph Ziggler is in deep trouble

It looks to me that Dolph Ziggler is really in pretty deep trouble for all he’s said lately about his career, the WWE and Randy Orton. I worry that Ziggler might have completely ended his WWE career recently with what he’s said, and the fact that he’s getting humbled more and more each week shows that they’re taking his comments very seriously.

I know TNA is very much the minor leagues of sports entertainment, but it might be all Ziggler is left with before long.

On the other hand, The Wyatt Family looked fantastic working together, and the way Bray worked the ring. That man is working that character from the top of his head to the tippy-tippies of his fingers and toes.

From Husky Harris who was less than no one, a total joke, to Bray Wyatt, who could be Champion some day if he continues on this slow and steady climb. It’s a character I could see as Champ, and Windham is playing the character in such a way that I could see him at the top. Such huge strides!

Divas disappoint yet again!

I have to admit that this match was much better than anything we’ve seen from the Divas in over a month, except when it came to Fox.

I really don’t understand why she’s still on the roster. She’s had ample time to work on her skills, but she can’t seem to use a mic, or hit many moves successfully. She’s also quite boring – maybe that’s why she’s not on Total Divas?

Anyway, the star of this match was Natalya. That woman hit every move hard, and flawlessly. I’d love to see her working against AJ for the Divas Title, as she’s the only Diva – other than Kaitlyn and AJ – who knows how to work the ring in any serious manner. Fingers crossed now, that she’s a married woman, hope her luck would change.

And the World Heavyweight Championship officially means nothing!

Now, I love R-Truth, he’s a hard working man, but he’s not a top wrestler, and putting one of the top champs in the ring with him means that they have absolutely no faith in the Champion, or the Championship – at least to me!

The match wasn’t bad, but that’s because R-Truth looked strong through most of it. Of course, ADR won with his only finisher, his one submission hold.

That man should not be holding gold, and hasn’t proven that he’s worthy his whole time with the WWE! And it’s taken him this long to realize that he should be going by ADR? I’ve been calling him that for three years!

The return of the Canadian Italian cobra!

It was great to see Santino return to the WWE ring! I’m not thrilled that Cesaro had to lose a match to Santino, but it was nice to see Santino actually use a small portion of his ring skills.

I know Santino is a riot, the funny guy on the roster, the one who can make everyone laugh, but when he does it, he’s sacrificing his arsenal of skills in the process.

Santino has ring skills that few can touch, but because he’s the funny guy, we don’t get to see them. I guess we should be happy that he gets the TV time he does, and not worry that he’s not showing what he really can do, especially since he and his business partner just recently opened their MMA and pro wrestling school in Ontario, Canada.

He’s passing on his knowledge, and that’s a great thing.

Fandango distracts Miz, again!

I have to admit that I love that they keep teasing us with the feud between Fandango and Miz. It started at SummerSlam, and the teasers keep growing, but it hasn’t exploded yet.

Now, I do wish Fandango was feuding with someone better than Miz, as it’s a huge step down from working with Jericho, but not every feud can be with a top legendary wrestler!

Fandango and Miz are fun, and maybe it will help them both in the long run. Sadly, the one who needs the most help is Sandow. With Cody Rhodes gone, Sandow seems to be a bit lost and without direction.

It’s too early for him to go after the World Heavyweight Championship, but they need to figure out something to do with him in the mean time, because he’s floundering!

Goldust proves himself

Goldust was impressive

I was quite impressed with how Goldust looked physically. He looked thin, but not too thin. Some of his returns were marked by how chunky he looked in his jumpsuit, but not this time.

He didn’t look overly thin, but he looked leaner than we’ve seen him in years. Further, the way Goldust worked the ring was better than I remember during his past couple runs in the WWE and TNA.

He went to that ring and left it all out there for almost a quarter of an hour, and carried the WWE Champion with his work. Goldust looked strong, technical, and dedicated. I was very impressed, and I hope the WWE thinks hard about bringing Goldust back to the company to work against Cody when he returns.

Cody needs to feud with Goldust, it’s something the fans really want to see, and since Goldust is in the best shape we’ve seen him in, when better than soon?

I know they will have to come up with some sort of storyline to explain it, they could even pit the brothers against each other, and one of them gets a job over the other, but the brothers need to feud in some way and soon – both showed that they’re ready in their most recent two matches.

Steph was really quite obnoxious to Goldust after he lost his match. Even when she started off sounding somewhat sympathetic, I knew she was going to turn nasty, but Steph stepped even further than I thought she might. That last shot for Dustin to say hi to Dusty for her after blaming absolutely everything on Dustin’s loss was almost painful to watch, especially after Goldust put on such a wonderful match.

Battle of the airbrushed singlets!

I don’t know what happened to the ring skills he used to have, but they appear to have completely disappeared since making his debut as Ryback. The way he was working was atrocious!

Even worse is that Ryback was in the ring with a wrestler who can work with almost anyone and make them look solid – except Ryback. The only redeeming quality of this match was that the airbrush artist had two of his singlets in the ring at the same time.

I love that Ryback went to RVD and asked if he minded that he use the same airbrush artist for his singlets. RVD thought it was great because he wants to support the artist, and RVD was in TNA at the time, so there wasn’t a chance they’d be facing each other in the ring.

Now that they have, in the worst match of the night, the only good thing was the art work.

Bryan takes control!

Daniel Bryan takes control

There was no way that the WWE could go into Night of Champions with Bryan not getting the upper hand in any way. Bryan needed to show that he could beat down Orton, somehow.

Bryan’s work with Ambrose was stellar, but that’s to be expected. It was Bryan’s work with Ambrose between his runs with the WWE that brought Ambrose into the WWE. Their work was so good in those few matches that Ambrose was hired. The two men have proven over and over how well they work the ring together, and tonight stole the show working together – yet again!

And that work should have dominated the night, but it was after the match that things really became interesting. Since Big Show didn’t have a hand in the match, of course he had to be involved after the match.

The thing is that the WWE built themselves another huge plot hole and didn’t fill it in. Steph said that Big Show couldn’t lay a finger on The Shield. That, to me, says that Big Show could have hit them with his chair. It was a loophole.

And then there’s the fact that she said he couldn’t lay a finger on The Shield, but she didn’t say that Big Show couldn’t lay a finger on Orton! Orton was all up in Big Show’s face, saying that he was doing it by Trip’s proxy, and Big Show didn’t touch him.

Maybe I over-analyze every bit of fiction I encounter, especially when it comes to pro wrestling, but I keep seeing these huge plot holes in this storyline, specifically where it effects Big Show.

You’d think that WWE creative, especially with Steph and Trip working so closely on their own storylines, that they would work out these problems before they make it to TV. And then there’s the fact that The Shield was nowhere to be found when Bryan took Orton out in the ring. Why were they suddenly gone?

All that being said, it was great that Bryan was able to take out Orton on his own, without Big Show’s help. It shows he has the abilities to do it, and that’s what he needed to show going into Night of Champions.

With that ending segment, the WWE and Daniel Bryan made Night of Champions, and the main event into something so much bigger and better than it might have been if Bryan didn’t prove that he can hold his own.

Finally, I’m getting excited to see what the WWE is going to bring us on Sunday night! Make sure you check out my Night of Champions Predictions later this week and read what I think will go down this Sunday when Punk and Bryan step up to take back what is theirs!