Legion's Raw 1000th Review

[We Are Legion]

Last night WWE presented the monumental 1000th episode of Raw live from Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Since January 11, 1993, Raw has been World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship television program, delivering fans all over the world some of the most memorable moments in professional wrestling history.

Now normally here on WrestlingSmarks.com I do mostly pay per view reviews, but I felt since this sort of thing only happens a few times in a lifetime, it definitely warrants a quality review. And also after my extremely negative review of Money in the Bank 2012, I wanted to cover an event that I had more good things to say about. This show was definitely worth the wait.

Before the show started, we were treated to a video package of some of the most memorable moments on Monday Night Raw over the past 19 1/2 years, including Steve Austin's 1998 antics with various vehicles, various clips of DX from 1997-99 and 2006, promos of The Rock, Mick Foley winning the WWE Championship, and many other memorable moments. The video also included some of the sadder moments like Eddie Guerrero's tribute and even controversial moments like "Bret Screwed Bret". It was a very good package, and you can view it below.

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Vince McMahon

The show started off exactly the way it should have... with none other than Vincent K. McMahon entering the ring to a thunderous ovation by the St. Louis crowd. I was really glad to see Vinny get the pop he received and the man definitely deserved it. I can't imagine how important this moment was not just to Vince, but the entire McMahon family. I seriously felt great for the guy. Vince even gave his "Welcome to Monday Night Raw!" line from the first episode, but not in his old commentary voice from the early 90's... but in the same classic McMahon voice he's delivered his most memorable catchphrase "You're fired!" in countless times over the years. This short segment was executed very well by Vince and made for a perfect opener to the event.

DeGeneration X

Vince wastes very little time and promptly introduces DeGeneration X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) unquestionably WWE's most famous tandem of all time. Hunter and Shawn goof around in the ring for a few minutes, reminiscent of the 2006 version of DX. Michaels makes a few bogus attempts at humor by saying he didn't forget to wear his underwear and asks Hunter if he forgot his... a question I was pretty irked about. Then Hunter asks Michaels, "Didn't there used to be more of us?". And with another thunderous reaction from the crowd, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and X-Pac drive out in the cannon-mounted DX Army jeep from 1998... the same jeep they used to invade WCW's Nitro event in Hampton Roads, Virgina and WCW Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

DX then proceeds to go through all their famous pre-match lines from the late 90's, starting with Road Dogg's "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages..." spill, followed by Triple H's "For the thousands in attendance..." spill. Billy and Shawn then argue about who gets to say the last line, which Hunter intervenes and tells Billy that if Shawn doesn't get his way, he'll lose his smile and pose for Playgirl. That was definitely the funniest line of the whole segment.

The segment is interrupted by Damien Sandow who walks to the ring repeatedly condescending to DX's antics in the ring. Hunter then calls for a "group huddle" to discuss what they would do next, then Shawn Michaels proceeds to land sweet chin music on Sandow. Hunter then picks Sandow back up and hits the petigree on him. Billy Gunn ends the segment with "If you're not down with that, I got two words for ya'... SUCK IT!"

The band is back together!

This segment was executed to perfection, and aside from a few bad jokes that come with the "neutered-version" of Shawn Michaels, this was without a doubt the best of the various "DX Reunions" over the years. Yes, a part of that was simply because we got to see the likes of the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac again, but segment went over very well with the crowd and made for an excellent start to Raw 1000th.


Tag team match: Sheamus, Sin Cara, Rey Mysterio v. Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero)

Prior to the match, JR is introduced for guest commentary. Unsurprisingly, not much of a crowd pop for JR, especially when he's still walking out to the Oklahoma University fight song with great big "OU" logos all over the stage. After all, the University of Missouri is Big 12 rival of OU and all... but I really doubt JR cares. He didn't even shave or "wear a tuxedo" as Jerry Lawler pointed out, so whatever. I wonder if JR would have the balls to pull that crap in Austin, Texas though.

The match is particularly fast-paced, obviously not going for a long match by any means. I noticed Sin Cara was a lot less-sloppy than unusual, executing a tornado DDT to perfection, and was given a reasonable amount of ring time. I was also a little confused at why Jericho was on heels' team, particularly why he was Dolph Ziggler's partner after the events that transpired between those two last week. It seemed inevitable one of those two would cost the team the victory by attacking their own partner.

At one point, Jericho looks to have the match well in hand against Sheamus, exchanging a series of finishing move-counters that ends when Ziggler lands a cheap shot on Jericho while the referee's head is turned, which then leads to Sheamus landing the Brogue Kick on Chris Jericho and scoring the win. Pretty predictable ending and nothing spectacular as far as the match itself goes, but this will no doubt lead to further the feud between Ziggler and Jericho for a match at Summer Slam. Nothing was done to further the feud between Sheamus and Del Rio.

For some reason, JR leaves commentary after this match. I was pretty bummed about that.


Charlie Sheen

Now we learn that apparently Charlie Sheen isn't actually there in the arena, but will be watching Raw at his home and commenting periodically through Skype. This was so stupid... I mean really, why isn't he there? WWE advertised the hell out of this guy for weeks to be a part of Raw's 1000th episode, and instead we get to watch Lawler and Cole Skype with him? If Sheen couldn't make it, WWE should have just cancelled his involvement completely. I doubt anyone would have been disappointed. This could also be a new WWE partnership with Skype and they thought Skype'ing with Charlie Sheen would be a good idea to get the ball rolling. I don't know, but it was really hard to not think about all the perverted things Sheen has no doubt used Skype for. He even says Sheamus looks like someone he might have partied with back in the day. As white as Sheamus is, I don't think he's quite cocaine-white.


Backstage Segment: Return of the Hand

AJ Lee is seen backstage with Layla who is asking her if she's sure about going through with her wedding later tonight. AJ makes a few remarks about "WWE being unstable" which I really didn't think anything of. Then she opens the dressing room door and we see Jim Duggan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, R-Truth and "Little Jimmy". But the most disturbing thing we see is Mae Young and a guy dressed up in a giant human hand costume. This was explained to be the son Mae Young had on Raw all those years ago. At this point, I honestly didn't think anything would top this moment the rest of the night. I couldn't believe WWE went there. This was undoubtedly the hardest I laughed all night.


Jack Swagger v. Brodus Clay (w/ The Funkadactyls & Dude Love)

Before the bell sounds, Dude Love's entrance music hits and he struts down to the ring. While this is going on, Brodus makes very short work of Jack Swagger and finishes him with the splash.

After the "match", Dude Love celebrates in the ring with Brodus, Cameron, and Naomi. Jack Swagger attempts to run up behind Brodus Clay during the celebration, but Dude Love gives him a tie-dyed Mr. Socko.

A very simple segment no doubt designed just to give Foley a pop. Still, it was good to see the Duder back.

I was a little disappointed we didn't see Godfather in the segment. He would have fit here perfectly.

Backstage segment: Triple H and Trish Stratus

We see Trish demonstrating some Yoga moves to Triple H in the locker room. At one point, Trish stands behind Triple H in a very suggestive position to say the least. At this point, I am absolutely certain Stephanie McMahon will drop in and bring the hammer down on this "exercise". Instead, there is no Stephanie and DX walks into the room smiling at Hunter and teasing him a little. Hunter seems to be embarrassed and leaves the room with all the members of DX, except X-Pac who stays behind to flirt with Trish. Trish doesn't seem impressed with X-Pac. Probably because she didn't want to end up in a controversial home video.

I was initially disappointed in this scene for the sole purpose Stephanie wasn't involved in it. It could have been the very best segment of the night if she had intervened instead of DX. I even told my wife that I would let that slide as long as they were saving Stephanie for something bigger later in the night.


Backstage segment: Daniel Bryan

We see Bryan backstage with 3 or 4 guys dressed completely in white which Lawler and Cole assume to be his grooms for tonight's wedding. These men are hardly dressed as grooms and resemble cooks more than anything. The commentators seem very confused and we never find out who these men are the rest of the night.


Wedding Ceremony: Daniel Bryan & AJ Lee, WWE Legend Slick as the reverend

This segment was very strange and marked the first time of the evening I actually had something negative to say about the show. Slick is introduced first, which was a great touch because he truly is one of the forgotten great managers in WWE. It was definitely a treat to see him again. The guy's definitely put on some weight over the past 20 years, but he's still got it on the mic.

Daniel Bryan enters the ring to his entrance music, dressed completely in white from head to toe. Even the mounted microphones and the mic stand in the ring were completely white, which really gave Bryan an extremely classy look when he talked. The aesthetics in this segment were definitely covered to perfection. AJ Lee then enters in her wedding dress to traditional wedding music and the ceremony begins.

Slick cuts a wild and dramatic introduction to the ceremony, leading AJ to calm him down. Bryan then recites very heartfelt vows to AJ and places the ring on her finger. Slick asks him if he takes AJ to be his lawfully wedded wife, to which he shouts, "YES!"

The segment takes a turn for the worse when Slick asks AJ the same question, to which she cuts him off before he even completes the sentence with, "YES! YES! YES!" Then before Slick pronounces them husband and wife, AJ cuts him off again and explains she wasn't saying "yes" to Bryan. She explains she was saying "yes" to someone else. By this time, I'm expecting Kane to come crashing through the floor at any moment now.

Vince McMahon's music hits. I am utterly confused now.

Vince explains that he asked AJ to be the new Raw GM earlier and apparently this is what AJ is saying "yes" to. She then leaves Bryan at the alter and dances up the ramp to her own entrance music and the segment ends.

I fail to see how being the Raw GM is reason to not marry someone. My guess is, AJ never actually intended on saying "yes" to Bryan and this was always just a way to hurt him. But if that is the case, why should this be tied into the marriage segment? Surely AJ could have accepted this role without resorting to something this dramatic? My guess is because WWE wanted to do a marriage segment just for the hell of it, considering these types of segments happen on Raw at least every 4-5 years and always end badly. It's just... the way the whole plan was hatched on Bryan was just really... mean. Seriously, wow! This is grounds for a heel turn with just about anyone else besides AJ doing it.

I'm also not thrilled about the idea of AJ being appointed as Raw GM. Fact of the matter is, she's not a heel. I know not everyone thinks the Raw GM should be a heel and they'll throw Teddy Long's name out there all day long to justify it. The fact of the matter is, Raw is always at it's best when the GM is a heel. Nobody wants to come home from a hard day's work Monday night and see a babyface GM. They want to watch someone sticking it to them. Though it's unclear to what capacity they will use AJ in this role, but my initial feeling on the matter isn't very optimistic.

"NO! NO! NO!"


After a commercial break, Daniel Bryan is still in the ring, refusing to leave. CM Punk's music hits and he enters the ring with Bryan. Punk claims he is not here to rub it in his face, but proceeds to rub it in his face. After an exchange of words, Bryan screams furiously into Punk's face that he's the greatest WWE superstar of all time. He screams this repeatedly until his face turns red. The Rock's music hits.

The Rock proceeds to run Bryan down viciously. He tells Bryan that he looks like the spawn of a homeless lumberjack and an oompa loompa, then sings a song about it. The Rock really made a huge splash in the segment, definitely saving it from the awkward direction it was going with AJ being named the new GM. Throughout The Rock's promo, CM Punk is constantly shows leaning against the ropes rolling his eyes, seemingly not impressed with The Rock's presence in the ring. I wasn't sure if this was intentional or not, but this would be explained later.

The Rock then announces that he will face whoever is WWE Champion for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in 6 months. This was something I kind of rolled my eyes at. I mean, yes, that's huge news... but announcing it 6 months in advance? And so close to Wrestlemania? I'm really curious to see the buy rates of 2013's Royal Rumble compared to Wrestlemania XXIX will be now. I'm actually really curious to know whether or not WWE will actually put the title on The Rock. My guess is they won't, CM Punk will retain, use his victory to taunt Cena ("I did what you couldn't"), setting up for the inevitable Cena v. Punk at Wrestlemania. That's what this whole situation looked to me at this point.


The Hitman Returns

Bret Hart makes a surprise appearance to announce the two competitors for the next match. He also makes mention of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig and how one of the best moments of his career was wrestling him for the Intercontinental Championship on Raw. He says what an honor it is to him to be here for the 1000th Raw and proceeds with the introductions.

I was very happy to see Bret show up for the event. Definitely a welcomed surprise.

Two of Canada's best.


Intercontinental Championship: Christian (c) v. The Miz

This was unquestionably the best match of the night and another very welcomed treat from WWE. Miz is one of those guys that I never really realized how much I liked him until he was gone for an extended amount of time. Since his return, I have very much been a fan of his new look and new attitude and I'm glad WWE seems to be rolling with him again.

Throughout the match, Christian did a very good job selling his left leg injury. Selling injury effectively was recently something I knocked Sheamus for in his match against Alberto Del Rio at Money in the Bank. Christian is definitely one of the best at it, avoiding moves that utilized the move, and reacting with pain when he was forced to. And I don't know what the move is called... but it's when Miz hits a DDT when his opponent is on his knees... yeah. I love that move and Miz executes it absolutely perfectly. That's probably my favorite signature move in all of wrestling right now.

The match reaches it's climax when Christian counters back body drop, landing on his injured leg, reacting again with pain, Miz catches him from behind, and lands the Skull-Crushing Finale. Miz becomes the new Intercontinental Champion! This was just a perfect finish in every sense of the word. Christian didn't really need to be carrying around that title anyways, and some would argue Miz doesn't need it either. I beg to differ, however. Miz had been doing absolutely nothing after losing the WWE Championship following his Wrestlemania XXVII win over John Cena. Winning the Intercontinental Championship is a great stepping stone to getting him back in the hunt for a major championship and I look forward to seeing what WWE will do with him in coming weeks.


Charlie Sheen Skype Segment Part 2

Whatever.


Triple H calls out Brock Lesnar

Triple H's music hits and walks to the ring still wearing his DX gear. The nameplate even labels him "WWE Chief Operating Officer"... in his DeGeneration X gear. It's a minor knock on the segment, but maybe Trips should have changed wardrobe for this segment?

After being berated by Triple H in the ring, Brock Lesnar's music hits and out walks Paul Heyman and only Paul Heyman. Triple H states that he wanted to hear the answer from the horse's mouth, not the horse's ass. Paul Heyman says the answer to Triple H's challenge is "no" and Brock will not be participating at Summer Slam. Triple H says he's getting tired of this crap and suggests that maybe he should just go backstage and find Lesnar himself. Heyman suggests that doing such a thing would not be good for business, and Triple H proceeds to call Lesnar a coward and a little bully. Heyman asks Triple H if name-calling is something he teaches his own children. Triple H then slaps the microphone out of Heyman's hand and warns Heyman never to mention his children again. Heyman then apologizes, but adds that he feels sorry for Triple H's children.

Stephanie McMahon's music hits.

Steph gets one of the loudest pops of the night. She comes into the ring and also warns Heyman to never speak of their children. She also adds that the law suits he's filed against WWE are nothing more than spitefulness as a result of his failures in WCW, his failures in ECW, and his failures in WWE. This was unquestionably the greatest promo anyone cut all night. Heyman gives into Steph's taunts and declares Brock will fight Triple H at Summer Slam. Steph then slaps Heyman across the face, tackles him, and beats up on him as Triple H leans against the ropes and watches.

Shortly afterwards, Brock's music hits again and he charges the ring. Triple H gets Stephanie out of harm's way and helps her exit the ring as Brock enters it. Brock jumps all over Triple H initially, but Triple H fights back and expels Brock from the ring. Hands-down the best segment of the night and it did an excellent job rejuvenating this almost-dead rivalry.

Personally, if I had booked this segment, I would have ended it with Brock getting the upper-hand in the end, but since it's such a historic episode of Raw, I wasn't against the idea of having Triple H get the last word either. Absolutely amazing segment.

Best segment of the night



Heath Slater v. Lita

Slater walks down to the ring a says he is issuing an open challenge to any of the "so-called legends" in the back to a no-disqualification/falls count anywhere match.. Lita's music hits.

Slater laughs at Lita and asks her if she seriously thinks she can beat him. Lita tells Slater "yes" and that she also brought an insurance policy. The APA's music hits and out comes Ron Simmons (Farooq) and Bradshaw. Slater throws his hands up in the air and leaves.

Before Slater can make it up the entrance ramp, several WWE legends that have made appearances on Raw over the past several weeks block his path. Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sycho Sid, Animal, Doink the Clown, Bob Backlund, Diamond Dallas Page, Rikishi, and Sgt Slaughter all make sure Slater goes back to the ring.

Lita waste little time and hits Slater with the Twist of Fate. Right afterwards, Bradshaw nails Slater with the Clothesline from Hell. Lita then climbs the top rope and performs her signature moonsault to Slater, and beating him with a 3-count. Lita then celebrates in the ring with the WWE legends. Ron Simmons ends the segment by looking around at all the legends, and then down on Heath Slater, and then.... "DAMN!"

Humongous pop for Lita and definitely one of the most special segments all night. I was really surprised WWE gave Lita such a big spotlight. Even Trish was restricted to a backstage segment. No complaints here.

You don't miss this? Liar.



Backstage segment: Daniel Bryan with Sean Mooney

Bryan is shown backstage with former WWE ring announcer Sean Mooney. Mooney asks him about the marriage disaster earlier in the night and Bryan proceeds to insult Charlie Sheen, asking how he's in a position to judge anybody. This is a very good point and it's certainly not a question that would be answered later in the night.


Ringside segment: Cole & the 100,000,000th WWE social media follower

Cole introduces the fan in the audience. A few liars in the crowd patronize the guy with a smattering of pity claps. Cole insists the fan is honored to be interviewed by himself. The fan rolls his eyes and his lips read "Yeah whatever, man." You know what, he should be. He should be grateful he was even on television, let alone given ringside seats. The only thing I was curious about is what social media platform he followed WWE on, but it never said.


Backstage segment: Zack Ryder, John Cena, Mean Gene Okerlund, The Rock

Pretty weird segment. Zack is shown talking to Cena and Gene, insisting Gene was the originator of "GTV", because the "G" in "GTV" apparently stands for "Gene". The segment was all sorts of not-funny and I was completely lost. I did some reading up on this, and apparently this was an angle from years ago that I must have missed. Not to sound arrogant, but if I don't even remember this, chances are most people don't either. Certainly Raw could have utilized Gene Okerlund better than this. He's only the best interviewer of all time.

The Rock suddenly walks up to Cena and Ryder and Gene immediately leave. The Rock tells Cena the same thing he told Punk earlier (about facing the WWE Champion at Royal Rumble) and wishes Cena luck in his WWE Championship match later in the night. The Rock hints that he would really like that champion to be Cena.


Kane and Undertaker

Kane walks down to the ring as if he's about to wrestle in a match. Suddenly Jinder Mahal (I seriously just had to look this guy's name up) walks out from the backstage area with Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, Camacho, Hunico, and Drew McIntyre... "J.O.B. Squad 2012" apparently. If not, they should really call themselves that. They might even get over a little.

JOB2012 says they are tired of not getting television time basically, and they're about to take it out on Kane.

*dong*....... *dong*......

Undertaker makes his first appearance since Wrestlemania XXVIII and enters the ring at his brother's side. Taker botches removing his hood for probably the first time ever. Yes, I just can't let that go. JOB2012 regroup near the commentators' desk and devise a plan of attack, much to everyone's including Lawler's surprise.

The 5 men attack Undertaker and Kane, but are easily dealt with. Both Kane and Taker execute simultaneous chokeslams and simultaneous Tombstone piledrivers on two of the jobbers, don't care to look them up right now. The Brothers of Destruction do their memorable post-match pose in the middle of the ring afterwards.

Considering Taker is the only man on the current roster that was on the first Monday Night Raw, this simply wouldn't have been a celebration without him. In my opinion, Taker was the only wrestler that it was an absolute MUST for him to be on this show. I wish there was more to be said about this segment, but there really isn't. Kane seems to be completely removed from the Punk/Bryan/AJ story now and it's still uncertain what he will do next. I'm still kind of pissed he didn't crash the wedding earlier in the night, but that's forgivable.

Greatest alliance ever?


Charlie Sheen on Skype Part 3

Sheen hints at a challenge to Daniel Bryan when Summer Slam comes to LA next month. Again I ask myself why Sheen isn't actually there in person to issue this "challenge". He just came across like another internet fan talking trash about a wrestler. *looks around*


WWE Championship/Money in the Bank Cash-In: CM Punk (c) v. John Cena

As always with the final segment of Monday Night Raw, this will likely be the segment fans will discuss the most.

The match wasn't very thrilling, particularly because it wasn't given a whole lot of time, which I'm sure some fans saw coming after looking at their watches. The majority of the match was pretty slow paced, and if you were expecting something on the level of Money in the Bank 2011, you probably felt let-down by this bout.

The turning point of the match was when the referee was bumped over the top rope and rendered unconscious. During this turn of events, Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on Punk and covers him for the pin. Punk is clearly beaten, but with no referee to count the fall, the match continues. Big Show hits the ring and proceeds to knock out Cena with the WMD. Punk watches from the corner of the ring and does not intervene. After Big Show leaves, Punk seems to be conflicted. He rolls out of the ring and wakes up the referee and rolls him back into the ring. After thinking it over for a few moments, seemingly unsure if this is how he wants to win, he quits thinking about it and quickly covers Cena. Cena kicks out at 2.

The match continues and Punk once again loses the upper-hand. Cena locks the STF on Punk in the middle of the ring, and suddenly Big Show returns to the ring and interrupts the submission. The referee quickly calls for the bell and Big Show continues to beat up on Cena. Punk once again does not intervene between Cena and Big Show and watches on from the side of the ring.

The Rock's music hits and he dashes to the ring and begins to pummel Big Show. Then out of the blue, CM Punk attacks The Rock, and hits him with the GTS. Punk is the last man standing and walks back up the aisle with his championship to a chorus of boos, seemingly upset about something. At first I was thinking that this isn't necessarily a "heel-turn" by CM Punk since attacking The Rock certainly never made Cena a heel earlier this year. But Lawler adds, "CM Punk turned his back on the WWE Universe", confirming that this was definitely a change of attitude to say the least.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Punk was getting a little stale as champion, his babyface promos certainly aren't what they used to be, and this could be a good direction to take his character. On the other hand, they made him look considerably weaker than he had been in previous months by clearly losing that match to Cena twice and just turning him heel out of the blue. You also have to wonder how this will affect the previous AJ/Bryan angle. It almost makes AJ look like an idiot for admiring Punk in first place and not siding with Bryan. One thing I'm absolutely certain of is that this was not the best timing for this new angle with Punk. Again, I'm not against the idea of Punk turning heel, but heel turns this drastic are a little out-of-date, so I will be looking to see how WWE handles the story from here on out. It will definitely affect the chemistry between Punk and AJ as the new Raw GM eventually, the question is "When?".

You also have to wonder if this will count towards Cena's Money in the Bank cash-in, or if he will still get another opportunity to cash it in later, perhaps Summer Slam. If Cena and Punk are to have the Wrestlemania match I feel their feud deserves, I would opt towards not having a Summer Slam match in advance, which would mean this cash-in would indeed count. But something like this leaves a loophole I feel WWE would be foolish not to exploit.

"Why, Punk, Why?!"



Positives: Overall, I felt the quality of the Raw 1000th show was excellent and did a fantastic job utilizing not only talents from WWE's past (which was to be expected), but also utilizing some current talents as well (particularly Miz and Christian). I was happy to see some video packages that included classic Raw moments and catchphrases and I'm glad WWE didn't go completely overboard with them.

Lita and Stephanie's segments were the best parts of the show to me, though as far as actual wrestling, Miz and Christian definitely stole the show.

Mae Young's hand making the show was not just unexpected, but completely and utterly legendary to be honest.

The promo segments were great, but the only one that comes to mind right now is Stephanie's because she was just so completely awesome in her Heyman segment.

And aside from the try-hard Shawn Michaels segments, the humor was also good.

Negatives: No Steve Austin. Apparently Steve is going to write a blog later today explaining why he wasn't there, but this was just unacceptable for me. When the likes of Lita and Bret Hart even showed, I figured Steve Austin was a no-brainer and would eventually save the day at the end of that championship match. Him not being on this show was absolutely unacceptable for me. Even if he's filming a movie, WWE could have lied. They could have at least filmed a "backstage segment" between he and The Rock that was actually recorded somewhere in LA so he wouldn't have actually had to leave town during the filming of whatever movie he's doing. Or even a Skype interview... CHARLIE SHEEN WAS DOING IT ALL NIGHT! No Austin was a monumental let-down. It took a while to shake this bad taste out of my mouth, but even as a colossal Steve Austin fan, I can at least acknowledge Raw 1000th went off well without him.

The wedding ceremony was a mess, but this was to be expected. My main gripe about it is just that it didn't make sense. AJ came across as particularly cruel and I felt Bryan got a lot worse than he deserved. Very weird time to announce her as the new GM. When my wife and I renew our vows in a few years, I want someone to interrupt and announce my wife as the new GM just so it will confuse the living hell out of everyone in attendance just like this segment did. Ok, not really.

CM Punk's heel turn seems a little too sudden for today's WWE. Something that major should at least have a prologue, something leading up to it. This just came completely out of nowhere and I feel it could have been handled better. It feels like it was just rushed so it would happen on the 1000th Raw.





Thanks for reading! And for real this time... until Summer Slam!

 

[Chris]

Normally don't agree with your reviews too much actually, but almost all of this I agree with. A few things though:

That GTV line was hilarious to me because I do remember the angle.

I'll give AJ a chance as GM before if I'm a fan or not, I'm loving her lately, but I really don't have much faith that it will work out.

Punk heel turn (if it's even a heel turn) didn't feel rushed at all to me, especially with the Rock segment earlier in the night. It's only because half their top stars only work a few dates a year, but WWE is doing a bit more long-term booking lately, and I'm liking it. Now if only they could do that with guys that are always there.

 

[PHX]

Punk's heel turn or maybe tweener alignment makes a lot of sense to me considering how he's always felt about The Rock and you could see it on his face during the seg with Rock how much he had this not this shit again look on his face while Rock was doing his mic routine. Basis will seemingly be about how he's tired of guys like him trying to take his spotlight and made a pretty damn big statement standing tall over both Cena and Rock on the most important Raw ep ever. We'll see though but that's just why I don't get the random feel about it at all since it been hinted at on numerous occasions one of the most recent instances being when Eve brought it to his attention.

As for the Austin thing as I'm sure you now know he didn't appear cause of him being on crutches and seeing Austin look that weak would have not been right at all and nothing we really would have wanted to see so it was best he just stayed home like he decided. Either way didn't like how people were blaming WWE for it as I had a feeling it was fully his call.

 

[We Are Legion]

Yeah I heard about his surgery/health condition only about an hour ago. That really sucks, but at least WWE aired a ton of his old footage.

As for Punk, I'm sure the angle will be explained more next week. It seems quite a few people don't think he really turned heel, which in itself is interesting. I still think he did, but we'll have to wait and see. Still doesn't explain why he shook Cena's hand before the match then refused to help him against Big Show twice. To me, that's something a heel does.

 

[Chris]

Yeah I heard about his surgery/health condition only about an hour ago. That really sucks, but at least WWE aired a ton of his old footage.

As for Punk, I'm sure the angle will be explained more next week. It seems quite a few people don't think he really turned heel, which in itself is interesting. I still think he did, but we'll have to wait and see. Still doesn't explain why he shook Cena's hand before the match then refused to help him against Big Show twice. To me, that's something a heel does.

True, but the way he seemed so reluctant to pin Cena after Show's attack (which was some pretty poor acting if I say so myself) made it seem like he wasn't happy about what he did, but he knew he had to. It was sort of a metamorphosis from Face, to tweener/rebel, and then the attack on Rock could be interpreted to being full on heel. I think it was booked very well.

 

[Dale]

Great review, was planning on doing one of my own but there's no way I can top that lol, I'll just add it to the RAW thread I think.

Anyway to keep it brief, I was so disappointed with this RAW came off because for something that was billed as a monumental milestone, I don't think what we was given did it justice. I think Fab said it best in the shoutbox and that if this was just a special 3 hour RAW we used to get here and there then I would have likely enjoyed it alot more, but because this was the 1000th Episode I didn't live to my (possibly unreal expectations)

Lita and The APA were without a doubt the higlights of the night for me and so was the Steph appearance.

Nothing else really wowed me and gave me awesome mark out moments which is a massive shame, but maybe that's because I had other ideas I was hoping to happen.

 

[We Are Legion]

Yeah Chris that really was bad acting, definitely have to agree with that. : I'm not sure if I can subscribe to the "metamorphosis theory" as you put it, but I can see how you came to that conclusion. Maybe the fact he didn't attack Cena afterwards could also be more evidence to support your theory, so it could go either way. But I'm leaning more towards heel turn after he just let Show dismantle Cena, even after the match. Could even have been to bait Rock.

I hear you, Dale, that's why I was avoiding this place all weekend, lol. Didn't want to know who was showing up and whatnot. I tend to get unreal expectations too when I hear more than I need to.

 

[PHX]

Really I don't know if WWE could have met expectations cause some people wanted big angles with current guys some people just wanted to stick any old name they could find on the show. Only so much you can fit in 3 hours and I thought they did a good job. Would have liked a little more of course but overall I was happy with the show.

 

[We Are Legion]

A lot of those people they were hoping to see are in other promotions as well.

 

[Keith]

Last night WWE presented the monumental 1000th episode of Raw live from Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Since January 11, 1993, Raw has been World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship television program, delivering fans all over the world some of the most memorable moments in professional wrestling history.

Now normally here on WrestlingSmarks.com I do mostly pay per view reviews, but I felt since this sort of thing only happens a few times in a lifetime, it definitely warrants a quality review. And also after my extremely negative review of Money in the Bank 2012, I wanted to cover an event that I had more good things to say about. This show was definitely worth the wait.

Before the show started, we were treated to a video package of some of the most memorable moments on Monday Night Raw over the past 19 1/2 years, including Steve Austin's 1998 antics with various vehicles, various clips of DX from 1997-99 and 2006, promos of The Rock, Mick Foley winning the WWE Championship, and many other memorable moments. The video also included some of the sadder moments like Eddie Guerrero's tribute and even controversial moments like "Bret Screwed Bret". It was a very good package, and you can view it below.

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Vince McMahon

The show started off exactly the way it should have... with none other than Vincent K. McMahon entering the ring to a thunderous ovation by the St. Louis crowd. I was really glad to see Vinny get the pop he received and the man definitely deserved it. I can't imagine how important this moment was not just to Vince, but the entire McMahon family. I seriously felt great for the guy. Vince even gave his "Welcome to Monday Night Raw!" line from the first episode, but not in his old commentary voice from the early 90's... but in the same classic McMahon voice he's delivered his most memorable catchphrase "You're fired!" in countless times over the years. This short segment was executed very well by Vince and made for a perfect opener to the event.

DeGeneration X

Vince wastes very little time and promptly introduces DeGeneration X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) unquestionably WWE's most famous tandem of all time. Hunter and Shawn goof around in the ring for a few minutes, reminiscent of the 2006 version of DX. Michaels makes a few bogus attempts at humor by saying he didn't forget to wear his underwear and asks Hunter if he forgot his... a question I was pretty irked about. Then Hunter asks Michaels, "Didn't there used to be more of us?". And with another thunderous reaction from the crowd, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and X-Pac drive out in the cannon-mounted DX Army jeep from 1998... the same jeep they used to invade WCW's Nitro event in Hampton Roads, Virgina and WCW Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

DX then proceeds to go through all their famous pre-match lines from the late 90's, starting with Road Dogg's "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages..." spill, followed by Triple H's "For the thousands in attendance..." spill. Billy and Shawn then argue about who gets to say the last line, which Hunter intervenes and tells Billy that if Shawn doesn't get his way, he'll lose his smile and pose for Playgirl. That was definitely the funniest line of the whole segment.

The segment is interrupted by Damien Sandow who walks to the ring repeatedly condescending to DX's antics in the ring. Hunter then calls for a "group huddle" to discuss what they would do next, then Shawn Michaels proceeds to land sweet chin music on Sandow. Hunter then picks Sandow back up and hits the petigree on him. Billy Gunn ends the segment with "If you're not down with that, I got two words for ya'... SUCK IT!"

The band is back together!

This segment was executed to perfection, and aside from a few bad jokes that come with the "neutered-version" of Shawn Michaels, this was without a doubt the best of the various "DX Reunions" over the years. Yes, a part of that was simply because we got to see the likes of the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac again, but segment went over very well with the crowd and made for an excellent start to Raw 1000th.


Tag team match: Sheamus, Sin Cara, Rey Mysterio v. Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero)

Prior to the match, JR is introduced for guest commentary. Unsurprisingly, not much of a crowd pop for JR, especially when he's still walking out to the Oklahoma University fight song with great big "OU" logos all over the stage. After all, the University of Missouri is Big 12 rival of OU and all... but I really doubt JR cares. He didn't even shave or "wear a tuxedo" as Jerry Lawler pointed out, so whatever. I wonder if JR would have the balls to pull that crap in Austin, Texas though.

The match is particularly fast-paced, obviously not going for a long match by any means. I noticed Sin Cara was a lot less-sloppy than unusual, executing a tornado DDT to perfection, and was given a reasonable amount of ring time. I was also a little confused at why Jericho was on heels' team, particularly why he was Dolph Ziggler's partner after the events that transpired between those two last week. It seemed inevitable one of those two would cost the team the victory by attacking their own partner.

At one point, Jericho looks to have the match well in hand against Sheamus, exchanging a series of finishing move-counters that ends when Ziggler lands a cheap shot on Jericho while the referee's head is turned, which then leads to Sheamus landing the Brogue Kick on Chris Jericho and scoring the win. Pretty predictable ending and nothing spectacular as far as the match itself goes, but this will no doubt lead to further the feud between Ziggler and Jericho for a match at Summer Slam. Nothing was done to further the feud between Sheamus and Del Rio.

For some reason, JR leaves commentary after this match. I was pretty bummed about that.


Charlie Sheen

Now we learn that apparently Charlie Sheen isn't actually there in the arena, but will be watching Raw at his home and commenting periodically through Skype. This was so stupid... I mean really, why isn't he there? WWE advertised the hell out of this guy for weeks to be a part of Raw's 1000th episode, and instead we get to watch Lawler and Cole Skype with him? If Sheen couldn't make it, WWE should have just cancelled his involvement completely. I doubt anyone would have been disappointed. This could also be a new WWE partnership with Skype and they thought Skype'ing with Charlie Sheen would be a good idea to get the ball rolling. I don't know, but it was really hard to not think about all the perverted things Sheen has no doubt used Skype for. He even says Sheamus looks like someone he might have partied with back in the day. As white as Sheamus is, I don't think he's quite cocaine-white.


Backstage Segment: Return of the Hand

AJ Lee is seen backstage with Layla who is asking her if she's sure about going through with her wedding later tonight. AJ makes a few remarks about "WWE being unstable" which I really didn't think anything of. Then she opens the dressing room door and we see Jim Duggan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, R-Truth and "Little Jimmy". But the most disturbing thing we see is Mae Young and a guy dressed up in a giant human hand costume. This was explained to be the son Mae Young had on Raw all those years ago. At this point, I honestly didn't think anything would top this moment the rest of the night. I couldn't believe WWE went there. This was undoubtedly the hardest I laughed all night.


Jack Swagger v. Brodus Clay (w/ The Funkadactyls & Dude Love)

Before the bell sounds, Dude Love's entrance music hits and he struts down to the ring. While this is going on, Brodus makes very short work of Jack Swagger and finishes him with the splash.

After the "match", Dude Love celebrates in the ring with Brodus, Cameron, and Naomi. Jack Swagger attempts to run up behind Brodus Clay during the celebration, but Dude Love gives him a tie-dyed Mr. Socko.

A very simple segment no doubt designed just to give Foley a pop. Still, it was good to see the Duder back.

I was a little disappointed we didn't see Godfather in the segment. He would have fit here perfectly.

Backstage segment: Triple H and Trish Stratus

We see Trish demonstrating some Yoga moves to Triple H in the locker room. At one point, Trish stands behind Triple H in a very suggestive position to say the least. At this point, I am absolutely certain Stephanie McMahon will drop in and bring the hammer down on this "exercise". Instead, there is no Stephanie and DX walks into the room smiling at Hunter and teasing him a little. Hunter seems to be embarrassed and leaves the room with all the members of DX, except X-Pac who stays behind to flirt with Trish. Trish doesn't seem impressed with X-Pac. Probably because she didn't want to end up in a controversial home video.

I was initially disappointed in this scene for the sole purpose Stephanie wasn't involved in it. It could have been the very best segment of the night if she had intervened instead of DX. I even told my wife that I would let that slide as long as they were saving Stephanie for something bigger later in the night.


Backstage segment: Daniel Bryan

We see Bryan backstage with 3 or 4 guys dressed completely in white which Lawler and Cole assume to be his grooms for tonight's wedding. These men are hardly dressed as grooms and resemble cooks more than anything. The commentators seem very confused and we never find out who these men are the rest of the night.


Wedding Ceremony: Daniel Bryan & AJ Lee, WWE Legend Slick as the reverend

This segment was very strange and marked the first time of the evening I actually had something negative to say about the show. Slick is introduced first, which was a great touch because he truly is one of the forgotten great managers in WWE. It was definitely a treat to see him again. The guy's definitely put on some weight over the past 20 years, but he's still got it on the mic.

Daniel Bryan enters the ring to his entrance music, dressed completely in white from head to toe. Even the mounted microphones and the mic stand in the ring were completely white, which really gave Bryan an extremely classy look when he talked. The aesthetics in this segment were definitely covered to perfection. AJ Lee then enters in her wedding dress to traditional wedding music and the ceremony begins.

Slick cuts a wild and dramatic introduction to the ceremony, leading AJ to calm him down. Bryan then recites very heartfelt vows to AJ and places the ring on her finger. Slick asks him if he takes AJ to be his lawfully wedded wife, to which he shouts, "YES!"

The segment takes a turn for the worse when Slick asks AJ the same question, to which she cuts him off before he even completes the sentence with, "YES! YES! YES!" Then before Slick pronounces them husband and wife, AJ cuts him off again and explains she wasn't saying "yes" to Bryan. She explains she was saying "yes" to someone else. By this time, I'm expecting Kane to come crashing through the floor at any moment now.

Vince McMahon's music hits. I am utterly confused now.

Vince explains that he asked AJ to be the new Raw GM earlier and apparently this is what AJ is saying "yes" to. She then leaves Bryan at the alter and dances up the ramp to her own entrance music and the segment ends.

I fail to see how being the Raw GM is reason to not marry someone. My guess is, AJ never actually intended on saying "yes" to Bryan and this was always just a way to hurt him. But if that is the case, why should this be tied into the marriage segment? Surely AJ could have accepted this role without resorting to something this dramatic? My guess is because WWE wanted to do a marriage segment just for the hell of it, considering these types of segments happen on Raw at least every 4-5 years and always end badly. It's just... the way the whole plan was hatched on Bryan was just really... mean. Seriously, wow! This is grounds for a heel turn with just about anyone else besides AJ doing it. I'm also not thrilled about the idea of AJ being appointed as Raw GM. Fact of the matter is, she's not a heel. I know not everyone thinks the Raw GM should be a heel and they'll throw Teddy Long's name out there all day long to justify it. The fact of the matter is, Raw is always at it's best when the GM is a heel. Nobody wants to come home from a hard day's work Monday night and see a babyface GM. They want to watch someone sticking it to them. Though it's unclear to what capacity they will use AJ in this role, but my initial feeling on the matter isn't very optimistic.

"NO! NO! NO!"


After a commercial break, Daniel Bryan is still in the ring, refusing to leave. CM Punk's music hits and he enters the ring with Bryan. Punk claims he is not here to rub it in his face, but proceeds to rub it in his face. After an exchange of words, Bryan screams furiously into Punk's face that he's the greatest WWE superstar of all time. He screams this repeatedly until his face turns red. The Rock's music hits.

The Rock proceeds to run Bryan down viciously. He tells Bryan that he looks like the spawn of a homeless lumberjack and an oompa loompa, then sings a song about it. The Rock really made a huge splash in the segment, definitely saving it from the awkward direction it was going with AJ being named the new GM. Throughout The Rock's promo, CM Punk is constantly shows leaning against the ropes rolling his eyes, seemingly not impressed with The Rock's presence in the ring. I wasn't sure if this was intentional or not, but this would be explained later.

The Rock then announces that he will face whoever is WWE Champion for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in 6 months. This was something I kind of rolled my eyes at. I mean, yes, that's huge news... but announcing it 6 months in advance? And so close to Wrestlemania? I'm really curious to see the buy rates of 2013's Royal Rumble compared to Wrestlemania XXIX will be now. I'm actually really curious to know whether or not WWE will actually put the title on The Rock. My guess is they won't, CM Punk will retain, use his victory to taunt Cena ("I did what you couldn't"), setting up for the inevitable Cena v. Punk at Wrestlemania. That's what this whole situation looked to me at this point.


The Hitman Returns

Bret Hart makes a surprise appearance to announce the two competitors for the next match. He also makes mention of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig and how one of the best moments of his career was wrestling him for the Intercontinental Championship on Raw. He says what an honor it is to him to be here for the 1000th Raw and proceeds with the introductions.

I was very happy to see Bret show up for the event. Definitely a welcomed surprise.

Two of Canada's best.


Intercontinental Championship: Christian (c) v. The Miz

This was unquestionably the best match of the night and another very welcomed treat from WWE. Miz is one of those guys that I never really realized how much I liked him until he was gone for an extended amount of time. Since his return, I have very much been a fan of his new look and new attitude and I'm glad WWE seems to be rolling with him again.

Throughout the match, Christian did a very good job selling his left leg injury. Selling injury effectively was recently something I knocked Sheamus for in his match against Alberto Del Rio at Money in the Bank. Christian is definitely one of the best at it, avoiding moves that utilized the move, and reacting with pain when he was forced to. And I don't know what the move is called... but it's when Miz hits a DDT when his opponent is on his knees... yeah. I love that move and Miz executes it absolutely perfectly. That's probably my favorite signature move in all of wrestling right now.

The match reaches it's climax when Christian counters back body drop, landing on his injured leg, reacting again with pain, Miz catches him from behind, and lands the Skull-Crushing Finale. Miz becomes the new Intercontinental Champion! This was just a perfect finish in every sense of the word. Christian didn't really need to be carrying around that title anyways, and some would argue Miz doesn't need it either. I beg to differ, however. Miz had been doing absolutely nothing after losing the WWE Championship following his Wrestlemania XXVII win over John Cena. Winning the Intercontinental Championship is a great stepping stone to getting him back in the hunt for a major championship and I look forward to seeing what WWE will do with him in coming weeks.


Charlie Sheen Skype Segment Part 2

Whatever.


Triple H calls out Brock Lesnar

Triple H's music hits and walks to the ring still wearing his DX gear. The nameplate even labels him "WWE Chief Operating Officer"... in his DeGeneration X gear. It's a minor knock on the segment, but maybe Trips should have changed wardrobe for this segment?

After being berated by Triple H in the ring, Brock Lesnar's music hits and out walks Paul Heyman and only Paul Heyman. Triple H states that he wanted to hear the answer from the horse's mouth, not the horse's ass. Paul Heyman says the answer to Triple H's challenge is "no" and Brock will not be participating at Summer Slam. Triple H says he's getting tired of this crap and suggests that maybe he should just go backstage and find Lesnar himself. Heyman suggests that doing such a thing would not be good for business, and Triple H proceeds to call Lesnar a coward and a little bully. Heyman asks Triple H if name-calling is something he teaches his own children. Triple H then slaps the microphone out of Heyman's hand and warns Heyman never to mention his children again. Heyman then apologizes, but adds that he feels sorry for Triple H's children.

Stephanie McMahon's music hits.

Steph gets one of the loudest pops of the night. She comes into the ring and also warns Heyman to never speak of their children. She also adds that the law suits he's filed against WWE are nothing more than spitefulness as a result of his failures in WCW, his failures in ECW, and his failures in WWE. This was unquestionably the greatest promo anyone cut all night. Heyman gives into Steph's taunts and declares Brock will fight Triple H at Summer Slam. Steph then slaps Heyman across the face, tackles him, and beats up on him as Triple H leans against the ropes and watches.

Shortly afterwards, Brock's music hits again and he charges the ring. Triple H gets Stephanie out of harm's way and helps her exit the ring as Brock enters it. Brock jumps all over Triple H initially, but Triple H fights back and expels Brock from the ring. Hands-down the best segment of the night and it did an excellent job rejuvenating this almost-dead rivalry.

Personally, if I had booked this segment, I would have ended it with Brock getting the upper-hand in the end, but since it's such a historic episode of Raw, I wasn't against the idea of having Triple H get the last word either. Absolutely amazing segment.

Best segment of the night



Heath Slater v. Lita

Slater walks down to the ring a says he is issuing an open challenge to any of the "so-called legends" in the back to a no-disqualification/falls count anywhere match.. Lita's music hits.

Slater laughs at Lita and asks her if she seriously thinks she can beat him. Lita tells Slater "yes" and that she also brought an insurance policy. The APA's music hits and out comes Ron Simmons (Farooq) and Bradshaw. Slater throws his hands up in the air and leaves.

Before Slater can make it up the entrance ramp, several WWE legends that have made appearances on Raw over the past several weeks block his path. Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sycho Sid, Animal, Doink the Clown, Bob Backlund, Diamond Dallas Page, Rikishi, and Sgt Slaughter all make sure Slater goes back to the ring.

Lita waste little time and hits Slater with the Twist of Fate. Right afterwards, Bradshaw nails Slater with the Clothesline from Hell. Lita then climbs the top rope and performs her signature moonsault to Slater, and beating him with a 3-count. Lita then celebrates in the ring with the WWE legends. Ron Simmons ends the segment by looking around at all the legends, and then down on Heath Slater, and then.... "DAMN!"

Humongous pop for Lita and definitely one of the most special segments all night. I was really surprised WWE gave Lita such a big spotlight. Even Trish was restricted to a backstage segment. No complaints here.

You don't miss this? Liar.



Backstage segment: Daniel Bryan with Sean Mooney

Bryan is shown backstage with former WWE ring announcer Sean Mooney. Mooney asks him about the marriage disaster earlier in the night and Bryan proceeds to insult Charlie Sheen, asking how he's in a position to judge anybody. This is a very good point and it's certainly not a question that would be answered later in the night.


Ringside segment: Cole & the 100,000,000th WWE social media follower

Cole introduces the fan in the audience. A few liars in the crowd patronize the guy with a smattering of pity claps. Cole insists the fan is honored to be interviewed by himself. The fan rolls his eyes and his lips read "Yeah whatever, man." You know what, he should be. He should be grateful he was even on television, let alone given ringside seats. The only thing I was curious about is what social media platform he followed WWE on, but it never said.


Backstage segment: Zack Ryder, John Cena, Mean Gene Okerlund, The Rock

Pretty weird segment. Zack is shown talking to Cena and Gene, insisting Gene was the originator of "GTV", because the "G" in "GTV" apparently stands for "Gene". The segment was all sorts of not-funny and I was completely lost. I did some reading up on this, and apparently this was an angle from years ago that I must have missed. Not to sound arrogant, but if I don't even remember this, chances are most people don't either. Certainly Raw could have utilized Gene Okerlund better than this. He's only the best interviewer of all time.

The Rock suddenly walks up to Cena and Ryder and Gene immediately leave. The Rock tells Cena the same thing he told Punk earlier (about facing the WWE Champion at Royal Rumble) and wishes Cena luck in his WWE Championship match later in the night. The Rock hints that he would really like that champion to be Cena.


Kane and Undertaker

Kane walks down to the ring as if he's about to wrestle in a match. Suddenly Jinder Mahal (I seriously just had to look this guy's name up) walks out from the backstage area with Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, Camacho, Hunico, and Drew McIntyre... "J.O.B. Squad 2012" apparently. If not, they should really call themselves that. They might even get over a little.

JOB2012 says they are tired of not getting television time basically, and they're about to take it out on Kane.

*dong*....... *dong*......

Undertaker makes his first appearance since Wrestlemania XXVIII and enters the ring at his brother's side. Taker botches removing his hood for probably the first time ever. Yes, I just can't let that go. JOB2012 regroup near the commentators' desk and devise a plan of attack, much to everyone's including Lawler's surprise.

The 5 men attack Undertaker and Kane, but are easily dealt with. Both Kane and Taker execute simultaneous chokeslams and simultaneous Tombstone piledrivers on two of the jobbers, don't care to look them up right now. The Brothers of Destruction do their memorable post-match pose in the middle of the ring afterwards.

Considering Taker is the only man on the current roster that was on the first Monday Night Raw, this simply wouldn't have been a celebration without him. In my opinion, Taker was the only wrestler that it was an absolute MUST for him to be on this show. I wish there was more to be said about this segment, but there really isn't. Kane seems to be completely removed from the Punk/Bryan/AJ story now and it's still uncertain what he will do next. I'm still kind of pissed he didn't crash the wedding earlier in the night, but that's forgivable.

Greatest alliance ever?


Charlie Sheen on Skype Part 3

Sheen hints at a challenge to Daniel Bryan when Summer Slam comes to LA next month. Again I ask myself why Sheen isn't actually there in person to issue this "challenge". He just came across like another internet fan talking trash about a wrestler. *looks around*


WWE Championship/Money in the Bank Cash-In: CM Punk (c) v. John Cena

As always with the final segment of Monday Night Raw, this will likely be the segment fans will discuss the most.

The match wasn't very thrilling, particularly because it wasn't given a whole lot of time, which I'm sure some fans saw coming after looking at their watches. The majority of the match was pretty slow paced, and if you were expecting something on the level of Money in the Bank 2011, you probably felt let-down by this bout.

The turning point of the match was when the referee was bumped over the top rope and rendered unconscious. During this turn of events, Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on Punk and covers him for the pin. Punk is clearly beaten, but with no referee to count the fall, the match continues. Big Show hits the ring and proceeds to knock out Cena with the WMD. Punk watches from the corner of the ring and does not intervene. After Big Show leaves, Punk seems to be conflicted. He rolls out of the ring and wakes up the referee and rolls him back into the ring. After thinking it over for a few moments, seemingly unsure if this is how he wants to win, he quits thinking about it and quickly covers Cena. Cena kicks out at 2.

The match continues and Punk once again loses the upper-hand. Cena locks the STF on Punk in the middle of the ring, and suddenly Big Show returns to the ring and interrupts the submission. The referee quickly calls for the bell and Big Show continues to beat up on Cena. Punk once again does not intervene between Cena and Big Show and watches on from the side of the ring.

The Rock's music hits and he dashes to the ring and begins to pummel Big Show. Then out of the blue, CM Punk attacks The Rock, and hits him with the GTS. Punk is the last man standing and walks back up the aisle with his championship to a chorus of boos, seemingly upset about something. At first I was thinking that this isn't necessarily a "heel-turn" by CM Punk since attacking The Rock certainly never made Cena a heel earlier this year. But Lawler adds, "CM Punk turned his back on the WWE Universe", confirming that this was definitely a change of attitude to say the least.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Punk was getting a little stale as champion, his babyface promos certainly aren't what they used to be, and this could be a good direction to take his character. On the other hand, they made him look considerably weaker than he had been in previous months by clearly losing that match to Cena twice and just turning him heel out of the blue. You also have to wonder how this will affect the previous AJ/Bryan angle. It almost makes AJ look like an idiot for admiring Punk in first place and not siding with Bryan. One thing I'm absolutely certain of is that this was not the best timing for this new angle with Punk. Again, I'm not against the idea of Punk turning heel, but heel turns this drastic are a little out-of-date, so I will be looking to see how WWE handles the story from here on out. It will definitely affect the chemistry between Punk and AJ as the new Raw GM eventually, the question is "When?".

You also have to wonder if this will count towards Cena's Money in the Bank cash-in, or if he will still get another opportunity to cash it in later, perhaps Summer Slam. If Cena and Punk are to have the Wrestlemania match I feel their feud deserves, I would opt towards not having a Summer Slam match in advance, which would mean this cash-in would indeed count. But something like this leaves a loophole I feel WWE would be foolish not to exploit.

"Why, Punk, Why?!"



Positives: Overall, I felt the quality of the Raw 1000th show was excellent and did a fantastic job utilizing not only talents from WWE's past (which was to be expected), but also utilizing some current talents as well (particularly Miz and Christian). I was happy to see some video packages that included classic Raw moments and catchphrases and I'm glad WWE didn't go completely overboard with them.

Lita and Stephanie's segments were the best parts of the show to me, though as far as actual wrestling, Miz and Christian definitely stole the show.

Mae Young's hand making the show was not just unexpected, but completely and utterly legendary to be honest.

The promo segments were great, but the only one that comes to mind right now is Stephanie's because she was just so completely awesome in her Heyman segment.

And aside from the try-hard Shawn Michaels segments, the humor was also good.

Negatives: No Steve Austin. Apparently Steve is going to write a blog later today explaining why he wasn't there, but this was just unacceptable for me. When the likes of Lita and Bret Hart even showed, I figured Steve Austin was a no-brainer and would eventually save the day at the end of that championship match. Him not being on this show was absolutely unacceptable for me. Even if he's filming a movie, WWE could have lied. They could have at least filmed a "backstage segment" between he and The Rock that was actually recorded somewhere in LA so he wouldn't have actually had to leave town during the filming of whatever movie he's doing. Or even a Skype interview... CHARLIE SHEEN WAS DOING IT ALL NIGHT! No Austin was a monumental let-down. It took a while to shake this bad taste out of my mouth, but even as a colossal Steve Austin fan, I can at least acknowledge Raw 1000th went off well without him.

The wedding ceremony was a mess, but this was to be expected. My main gripe about it is just that it didn't make sense. AJ came across as particularly cruel and I felt Bryan got a lot worse than he deserved. Very weird time to announce her as the new GM. When my wife and I renew our vows in a few years, I want someone to interrupt and announce my wife as the new GM just so it will confuse the living hell out of everyone in attendance just like this segment did. Ok, not really.

CM Punk's heel turn seems a little too sudden for today's WWE. Something that major should at least have a prologue, something leading up to it. This just came completely out of nowhere and I feel it could have been handled better. It feels like it was just rushed so it would happen on the 1000th Raw.





Thanks for reading! And for real this time... until Summer Slam!

Its a good review, just a few comments.

1. Yes having a wedding angle in the first place seemed pointless to me but considering how it could have turned out I do think they made the best out it (I have stated my reasons elsewhere so won't be repeating them here) also surely AJ went as far as she did to embarrse Bryan in public that seems simple logic to, but you have a point on questioning how the GM thing is linked to the wedding?

2. As for the suggestion of AJ coming off as a heel as result of her actions I disagree on two counts. Firstly I think the character she is currently playing is more an anti-hero a bit like the sort the likes of Punk, Orton and Austin have played in the past. She is kind of a face in the sense that she has complex emotions, has been harshly treated by Bryan, and is bubbley and likeable, but also because of her obsessive, unstable nature and because of the fact that she was seeming to play Bryan and Punk off against each other (which is a heel act) then she also floats that way a bit too. My other reason is that if you follow the story from the start and the way Bryan treated AJ when she was his manager/love interest then it is a way of bringing it full circle ending with Bryan getting just what he deserves.

3. By saying that AJ looks an idoit for choosing Punk over Bryan (which I don't remember her offically doing but anyway) is assuming a lot, firstly that AJ didn't have real feelings for either, the way the story played out made it hard to tell weather she was just confused or if she knew what she was doing all the time, but even if you go the superfical route fact is Punk is still the WWE Champion so that isn't a bad meal ticket. Also don't you think Bryan was made to look weaker on the night than Punk was? Not so much with the wedding, but because of the way The Rock overshadowed him and the fact that Bryan was used as a simple go between for the rock/punk stuff. One way or the other it was not a great night to be Daniel Bryan.

4. I think it is a heel turn for Punk and I am all for it as WWE have not done enough with him as a face.

 

[Ryan]

I was so disappointed Austin was on the program but apparently he just had a knee surgery. I wanted him to come out during that first segment with the Rock since we haven't seen anything with the Rock and Austin together is almost 10 years and considering that the Rock and Austin are 1 and 1a in the battle for the spot of "greatest WWE superstar of all time."