WWE RAW Review – 27.08.12

Welcome to my review of the August 27th Edition of Monday Night Raw!

The show starts with a video package, highlighting the events at the end of last week’s episode, consisting of John Cena confronting CM Punk, and Punk kicking Jerry Lawler in the back of the head. The opening video package rolls, the pyro goes off and Raw is live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Lawler gets into the ring to kick off the show, and talks about being attacked by CM Punk last week. He says he got kicked in the head after apologising to the WWE Champion, and obviously feels angry, so he’s asking for an apology from Punk for his actions. CM Punk is out and talks about how Lawler wants him to apologise for doing his job. He says his attack on The Rock at Raw 1000 was justifiable. He didn’t turn his back on the WWE Universe; Lawler did for slandering the Champion.

He apologises, not for attacking Lawler, but because someone can get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for beating a bunch of nobodies and slapping a celebrity. He’s sorry that Lawler’s only Wrestlemania moment saw him lose to Michael Cole. He’s sorry about the man Lawler has become. “You wanna fight me, Jerry Lawler?” Lawler’s just a commentator, and Punk is the Best in the World. He says he’s going to embarrass Jerry Lawler. Lawler eventually says “Punk, I’ll think about it!”

Thoughts: I don’t quite understand WWE’s infatuation with bringing Lawler back to in-ring action every now and again, and I’m not too sure why they want him in this storyline. I think CM Punk and John Cena are two very talented guys and they’re well capable of carrying a feud without Lawler. In fact, I think he brings the feud down. Anything to get him off of commentary, I suppose. I have a theory for why Lawler is so heavily featured on this show, but I’ll reveal it at the end.

The first match of the night is Jack Swagger vs Ryback. This was one of Ryback’s most competitive matches, as he usually just dominates his opponents in a matter of seconds, but Swagger put up a good fight for a while before eventually succumbing to Ryback’s vicious clothesline and finisher.

Thoughts: It wasn’t an amazing bout, as it did consist of a few notable botched spots, but it wasn’t terrible either.

After the match, Swagger was sitting at the crowd barrier, shouting “That’s It!”, so I wonder if that means something for Swagger’s future.

Michael Cole hypes up the fact that Triple H will address his future live on Raw, and that John Cena will take on The Miz tonight.

Natalya vs Layla is the next match-up. Before the bell rings, Vickie Guerrero comes out and orders the two Divas to wrap this one up quickly, as she has an announcement to make. The bell rings, and they engage in what was actually a decent match for the Divas, which ended with Layla picking up the win after a big kick.

Thoughts: There were some nice spots, such as when Natalya used the ring apron to shift momentum to her side for a moment, and when she kicked out of a small package which I was sure would end the match. I do think, however, that it would’ve been perfectly fine for Guerrero to come out after the match. I feel as if it’s just another way to disrespect the Divas.

Vickie Guerrero rants about how AJ forcing Dolph Ziggler to put his Money in the Bank contract on the line last week was an abuse of power, and blatantly unfair. She says she’s the only one with the guts to stand up to AJ. It is time to put someone like Vickie Guerrero in charge, instead of a mentally deranged child. AJ’s music hits and she skips around the ring, before entering it. She looks like she is about to speak, but instead slaps Vickie Guerrero, and attacks her! Vickie eventually slips away, and AJ looks pretty pleased with herself.

Thoughts: I think AJ’s character is very interesting, and I’m liking (most of) her run as General Manager so far. Unfortunately, I can really picture this being one of those situations where she is “unfit to be General Manager” or something like that, and the Board of Directors fire her.

They show some awesome highlights of Triple H’s time as part of D-Generation X in his career. This will take place a few times on the show.

Part one of Daniel Bryan’s Anger Management class was slightly odd, but I enjoyed it. I particularly liked when the guy said to his son: “This man is sick and needs help”.

Lawler stands up on his chair after Cole asks him about CM Punk’s challenge, and lists the names of the legends he has beaten. He says he doesn’t know how long CM Punk would last in Memphis while he was there. He starts to repeat some of the stuff Punk said about him earlier, and says that you don’t get in the Hall of Fame unless you stand up when the time is right, so he says to CM Punk: “You damn right I’ll fight you tonight!”

After the break, John Cena makes his way to the ring, followed by The Miz, as they prepare to fight.

I was happy to see Michael Cole commentating by himself, because it meant he had nobody to argue with, and wouldn’t annoy me too much. That changed after another break, as he was joined by Josh Matthews. It started to go downhill from there, because there was a good match taking place the ring, and they were discussing CM Punk, Jerry Lawler, Triple H and even Shawn Michaels, which really annoys me. Call the match! John Cena won with the Attitude Adjustment.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the match. Yes, it was a typical John Cena match where, he takes move after move, kicks out at two, hits the Five Moves of Doom all of a sudden, and wins, but I particularly liked the work of The Miz. I thought he did quite well.

Cole announces that Jerry Lawler vs CM Punk will be a Tables Match, Steel Cage Match or a No-Disqualifications Match as a result of a Raw Active Twitter poll. I’ll admit that it was one of their better lists of choices. Another Triple H video package is shown, which highlights his return from injury at Madison Square Garden and many more of his memorable moments. A match between Sheamus and Randy Orton vs Alberto del Rio and Dolph Ziggler is announced for later on.

In Anger Management class, Daniel Bryan talks about having a bad boss, just as Kane arrives as the last member of their group.

Heath Slater vs Santino Marella is next. The Cobra is distracted by Aksana, but manages to strike Slater anyway; gaining the victory for Marella, in a match where ‘Boring’ chants could be heard clearly.

Thoughts: I find the whole idea of The Cobra, or rather, Santino Marella’s hand having a mind of its own very strange.

After some hype for the new WWE app, and the Raw Active choices, Brodus Clay makes his way to the ring alongside Cameron and Naomi. He is joined by Sin Cara, who will be his tag partner. Damien Sandow arrives, and introduces his partner, Cody Rhodes, who cuts a promo about how people in the Milwaukee crowd resemble Brodus Clay and Sin Cara due to girth and hideousness.

Rhodes and Sandow are two of my favourites in WWE today, because of their talents on the Mic and in the ring. I was very happy to see them team up. Disappointingly enough, Clay and Cara picked up the win. Clay countered the Beautiful Disaster kick into a headbutt, followed by a Big Splash, whilst Cara took care of Sandow on the outside. The winners celebrated post-match by dancing with WWE’s young fans.

Thoughts: I don’t know why they won, because it makes more sense to have Sandow and Rhodes win. I believe that these two deserve to be at the top of the roster and this is going to be even more of a setback, especially for Cody Rhodes.

The third instalment of Daniel Bryan’s Anger Management class was one of my favourite segments of the show. Kane went into detail about his life, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the mentions of Katie Vick and Pete Rose, not to mention the rest. The only thing that would’ve made it better is if he chokeslammed Harold.

One last video package plays for Triple H, which highlights his accomplishments, such as winning the Royal Rumble, the Intercontinental Championship, and being a 13-time World Champion.

Daniel Bryan takes on R-Truth, but loses by count-out during a Yes-No fight with a fan. When Truth said “Little Jimmy, I know where we’re at! Yes! We’re in Milwaukee!”, it reminded me of when everyone booed him there for saying he was in Green Bay by accident.

Triple H is then welcomed by Justin Roberts, and he comes to the ring in a cast to talk about his future. He talks about how there’s a time when wrestlers hit a crossroads in their career, where they have to question if they can still wrestle. He says he’s at that crossroads. He says that he wants to say that he’s going to beat the hell out of Lesnar, but he can’t say that, which answers the question of whether or not he can continue. He says he doesn’t know, but he takes time to thank the fans.

“Thank you for letting me play The Game.”

Thoughts: I think that if Triple H was going to retire, he should’ve done it at Wrestlemania 28, after that beautiful, poetic moment with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. If he wanted to go out like this, it should’ve at least been after putting over young talent, but no, it was Brock Lesnar, who will be gone just as fast as he returned. He won’t be here after Wrestlemania 29, so I don’t believe that this is the end. He’ll be gone for a while, but he’ll be back.

The lights go down, and Chris Jericho’s music hits, but its Dolph Ziggler standing on the stage. He talks about how he forced Chris Jericho out of the WWE, and steals his catchphrase by saying that we’ll never, EVER, see him again. Alberto Del Rio comes out, and a recap of the end of last week’s Smackdown is shown, where Dolph Ziggler nearly cashes in Money in the Bank, but is met with an RKO. Randy Orton and Sheamus are out next, and after a good tag team match, Sheamus hits a Brogue Kick on Ziggler for the win.

Thoughts: I’m not happy to see Alberto Del Rio vs Sheamus again at Night of Champions, as I think this feud has gone on long enough as it is, and this has been a good setup for a Fatal Four-Way match. Hopefully Booker T does something new for a change, and adds Orton and Ziggler to the match.

Jerry Lawler is backstage talking to John Cena about respect, and how he needs to beat CM Punk alone. He declines help from Cena, and Cena wishes him luck.

Kane comes out, which scares the hell out of Josh Matthews, which I found hilarious. He puts on a headset and joins the commentary team, even though Michael Cole does all of the talking. Kane would be the guest for Zack Ryder vs David Otunga, which I’m happy got a decent amount of time before Ryder hit the Rough Ryder for the win. Kane grabbed Zack Ryder’s throat post-match, but let go and chokeslammed Otunga instead.

Punk is shown preparing for his match with Lawler.

Dolph Ziggler vs Randy Orton is announced for Smackdown.

The WWE Universe voted for a Steel Cage Match, and AJ comes out. She announces that John Cena will face CM Punk for the WWE Championship at Night of Champions, which annoys me. Not because Cena is in the main event again, as I knew that would happen, but because AJ went back on her word to give CM Punk the choice and that is exactly why Punk feels he doesn’t have any respect in the WWE. The cage is lowered, and we go to a break. Funnily enough, they already have the match graphic for CM Punk vs John Cena. How strange.

Lawler and Punk make their entrances, and the Steel Cage Match is underway. CM Punk allows Lawler to take the first punch, which he does, and Punk sells it phenomenally. Then again, maybe Lawler did actually hit him, which he does later in the match, causing Punk to bleed a lot from the head. Punk wins via Submission, using the Anaconda Vice, after a pretty bad match.

He locks the Steel Cage door, using a chain and padlock he found under the ring. He beats Jerry Lawler, trying to force him to say that CM Punk is the Best in the World, which he refuses to do. Using his hands and knees, Punk goes to work on Lawler’s head, before John Cena comes to the ring and gets them to raise the cage (Surprisingly, Super Cena didn’t just rip the door off its hinges). Punk slides out of the ring before Cena can catch him. Raw goes off the air with CM Punk walking out, and Jerry Lawler being tended to by the Doctor and John Cena.

Thoughts: To close off what I said earlier, I think Jerry Lawler was featured so heavily because he could be done. His work on commentary over the last few years, the last few months particularly, have been appalling. He was good back in the day, but he just doesn’t belong on commentary anymore. He doesn’t belong in the ring, either. I believe this was Jerry’s swan song, and he probably won’t come back full-time after the beating he received.

Overall, it was a good show. I quite enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.