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- Jan 28, 2009
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- 2,484
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- 49
- Points
- 48
- Age
- 37
- Location
- Guitarway To Heaven
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I’m filling in this week on behalf of MikeRaw.
Opening Segment:
We get this fake Kroenke guy standing in the ring with Vince McMahon, and Vince is throwing his weekly insults at the guy, and taking stabs at him for not believing in his team’s playoff chances, hence the problem with booking. He makes fun of the guy’s name (Eenis), and starts saying how it rhymes with Venus, and Genius (which he’s not)… playing at it rhyming with “penis” for the audience. Vince then says the guy pushed the WWE fans, the WWE Universe… and that they push back. He shoves the guy to the mat and out of the ring, and is leaving when The Miz’s music hits.
Miz comes out saying how he’d never dream of interrupting McMahon (even though he’s doing it at the moment, haha), and starts saying how he got famous in LA, but the real NBA Champions would come from his hometown (revealed his LeBron Jersey) of Cleveland, Ohio. He starts taking shots at the Lakers to get more heat from the crowd, and talked about Cena, who made his way to the ring.
Cena walked out, and when he was diving into the ropes, Priceless attacked and proceeded to beat down Cena with Miz’s help. Batista came out and cleared house, Show came out and started attacking them, Lawler tried to help only to be head butted out of the situation… but Batista and Cena threw Show out of the ring with a solid pop.
Opening Segment Rating: ***
Could have been a bit cleaner and higher-impact with the main event scene, but it picks up later anyways. Good play on what happened this week, and getting the home crowd into the show playing on the NBA heat for Denver, and the WWE heat for Kroenke.
Divas Championship - Kelly Kelly vs. Maryse
Winner: Kelly Kelly via Disqualification
This match wasn’t too bad. Both performed decently in-ring, and both are nice to look at. They got a bit of a rough-streak going towards the end, when Maryse got on the outside of the ring and shoved Kelly onto the announce table, then shoved her over it (buildup for Extreme Rules anyone?). Then Maryse tried to beat the count, but the ref announced that she was disqualified.
Match Rating: *½
Did alright for what it was and what it was worth. Nothing spectacular but nothing overly wrong with it.
Backstage Segment - “Jack Nicholson”, Bella Twins, Goldust & Hornswoggle
The Bella Twins are arguing about how they could be good actors and shit, then Goldust and Hornswoggle appear. Goldust reverts back to his electrocution incident (and even hints at it) and then asks Nicholson if he and Hornswoggle can do a role. Nicholson says to do it and they do the shit, Nicholson says nice, and they celebrate their pleasing of the guy.
Segment Rating: *½
I don’t find much of anything with Hornswoggle entertaining, except what’s to come later. I always thought it was funny when Goldust did his twitch thing, so that was alright, glad he’s sticking to kayfabe from years ago, haha.
Locker Room Segment - Batista & Flair
Batista enters Flair’s locker room and asks him not to go out and confront Randy. He tells him to wait until after Extreme Rules to call him out since he’ll be beat up. Flair calls Batista a contradicting hypocrite in more words and storms out.
Segment Rating: **
Wasn’t long, but wasn’t bad. Everyone is going against Flair being back and wanting to go, and he seems desperate to go at it. It’s getting me wondering where they’re going to take this whole situation, and if Flair’s even going to be able to side with anyone at all.
Shot @ US Title Match Next Week’s Raw - Kofi Kingston vs. Matt Hardy vs. William Regal
Winner: Kofi Kingston
MVP wearing a headset next to Michael Cole and Jim Ross at the announce table gave us a refreshing ingredient to Raw. The match was picking up pretty quickly, a couple high-impact moves from everyone, some good momentum swings, and a lot of Matt Hardy attempting to use his cast. Regal attacked Hardy’s arm and played the conventional “smart-man” in the ring by trying to eliminate one or the other of his opponents from distraction. Everyone was getting pinfall attempts, Matt hit a few Side Effects, and then Kofi hit Regal with the Lost In Paradise. Matt tried a running “clothesline” with the cast, but Kofi ducked and hit the LIP on Matt when he turned around, and got the pin.
Match Rating: ***½
Pretty entertaining match. Regal dominated a fair bit, Matt’s selling the injury very well, and Kofi’s energy and charisma are skyrocketing. His rapport with the crowd is growing as well. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Matt Hardy in this though, and something tells me he gets inserted in next week’s match based on his “wrestling under protest” campaign.
In-ring Segment - Ric Flair vs. Orton
Flair comes out with a good pop as always. He says he wants Orton to be the man and come beat him up face to face. Voices blasts and Orton comes out, telling Ric it’s over, and he just doesn’t get it. Ric tries to cut him off, but Orton gets demanding, seemingly personal (which sold this segment beautifully in my eyes). He tells Flair everyone used him, and now they’re all feeling sorry for him. He tells him it’s over and Flair slaps Orton, who attacks Flair. Batista rushes to the ring and Randy leaves fast, Flair’s being held back by Batista and he’s going irate. Orton tells Batista that after Extreme Rules, he’ll be finished just like Flair.
Then Kennedy’s music hits with a fairly big pop. He calls for the mic, and I’m anticipating an Orton attack he’s so close to him on top of the ramp. He tells Orton it’s the beginning, and marks the return of the man who will soon be WWE Champion. He also announces he’ll be the 5th man on the “Lakers” team in the main event 5 vs. 5 match. “Miiiiisteerrrrrrrrrrrr… KENNEDYYYYY!” Orton leaves the arena mid-chant.
…“KEN-NUH-DYYYY!”
Segment Rating: ***½
Pretty decent on Flair and Orton’s behalf. Batista coming to Ric’s aid has me waiting to see Flair snap about being coddled and doubted. Awesome seeing Kennedy back and well-accepted. His promo was solid for the most part.
Mix Tag Match - Santino & Mickie James vs. Chavo Guerrero & Beth Phoenix w/ Rosa
Winner: Santino & Mickie James
Chavo and Santino start the match, I’m bored. Cant keep focus. Mickie and Beth end up in the ring somehow, Mickie rolls up Beth and gets the pin.
Vickie comes out to, STILL the most heat in the entire E, maybe even professional wrestling. She says she’s not worried about the stipulation Santino chooses for her match with Santina for Miss WrestleMania.
Santino blurts out this “Leaning Tower of Pizza Pepperoni” bullshit, then some kinda pole match (I don’t want to see Santino…err…a, or Vickie on a fucking pole). Then announces something about a pigpen match or some dumb shit, and Chavo looks sick and they leave.
Match/Segment Rating: */*
Nothing spectacular about any of this. I kinda chuckled at Santino’s ideas for the matches, but not really out of humor, but disbelief of the horrendous turn Santino has taken. How did this guy become a face again anyways!?
Backstage Segment - The Miz & Big Show
Show tells Miz nobody likes him, fans or wrestlers, and that if he wants to scrap with Cena, go ahead. He tells him nobody will pin Cena, that’s for Show to do. He walks away and Miz says “What? Like you did at Judgment Day?” Show asks what he said and Miz acts like he said nothing.
Segment Rating: *½
Just because it’s Miz and they’re really serious about pushing him. I like his character, he’s just arrogant, sly, and an asshole.
Goldust & Hornswoggle vs. The Brian Kendrick & Festus
Winner: Goldust & Hornswoggle
The Colons are at the announce table, and Festus starts the match off. He snaps and Goldust runs to his corner. Hornswoggle tags himself in and stares down Festus who refuses to fight. Kendrick tags himself in and starts shoving Hornswoggle around. He puts him in a small package, and Carlito says “putting a little person in a small package” and I can’t help but laugh at how much of an asshole that comment made Carlito appear. Kendrick tries to tag Festus in, Festus wont tag, he gets slapped and snaps. Kendrick gets caught with the “Curtain Call” and Tadpole Splash and gets pinned. He gets mad at Festus, then goes and grabs a chair. Carlito whispers to Primo and says expect something funny. Kendrick is getting ready to hit Festus when the bell rings and Festus snaps. Kendrick runs and Festus is acting like a fucking idiot.
Match Rating: **
Nothing spectacular. They’re completely burying Kendrick, but hopefully it’s just about finding the right partner for the job. The ring bell isn’t comical anymore though.
5 vs. 5 “Lakers” vs. “Nuggets”
Winner: “Lakers”
They are introduced by the Lakers PA voice, given roster spots and numbers. They’re all wearing their own jerseys and numbers, which was a decent twist on an “outside of the norm” situation. Seeing Cena in a jersey was awesome as hell. Nostalgic even. Didn’t like seeing Batista wearing shorts though, lmfao!
Match-wise, it seemed to me like nobody from the Lakers got in the ring. Kennedy got beat the entire match, getting his midsection demolished. The Nuggets team did a great job of cutting the ring off and using dirty tactics. Eventually Cena got tagged in though, started doing his moves of doom, but tagged in MVP. Cena did the 5 Knuckle Shuffle while MVP did the Ballin’ Elbow Drop at the same time (I said earlier I can picture Cena and MVP teaming up against Priceless in the coming month(s) and this could have been an awesome preview of what to expect). MVP hit the playmaker and got the win. DiBiase hit his finisher, followed by the Mic Check on him, RKO on Kennedy, Batista goes for Batista bomb, Show grabs his throat, and Cena’s. They counter and hit a double suplex on Show and celebrate in the ring.
Match Rating: ****
4 stars in comparison to the night and for a Raw. With so many important names, on a night with the situation which happened this week and what they were doing with that situation, this match was fitting and did it’s work. Kennedy’s in-ring time to me seemed like a test for him more than it did just great work by the Nuggets team. It was cool seeing the end play out like it did with MVP getting the win, and not one of the established main eventers.
Match of the Night: Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match
I liked the flow and production of this match more than the main event. I know I rated it lower, but to me, it wasn’t cluttered or rushed and kind of disappointing in that everyone got to participate equally and display their craft.
Best segment: Flair vs. Orton with Kennedy return.
I just like the way they crafted this entire segment. I liked that it was personal, still fit kayfabe, and had some entertainment value with a bit of action. A returning Kennedy with the mystery-man announcement was a nice addition to the segment. Not taking anything away from the opener and doing what it was intended to do with everything that happened this week, but this segment was solid in my eyes.
Show Rating: ***
Decently put together, good balanced mixture of promos and matches. Nothing more exciting this week, but nothing that really dragged (other than mixed tag). I'm being somewhat generous with some of the poor performances, but taking it for what it is supposed to be worth. And again, this show wasn’t normal considering the events of this past week.
Opening Segment:
We get this fake Kroenke guy standing in the ring with Vince McMahon, and Vince is throwing his weekly insults at the guy, and taking stabs at him for not believing in his team’s playoff chances, hence the problem with booking. He makes fun of the guy’s name (Eenis), and starts saying how it rhymes with Venus, and Genius (which he’s not)… playing at it rhyming with “penis” for the audience. Vince then says the guy pushed the WWE fans, the WWE Universe… and that they push back. He shoves the guy to the mat and out of the ring, and is leaving when The Miz’s music hits.
Miz comes out saying how he’d never dream of interrupting McMahon (even though he’s doing it at the moment, haha), and starts saying how he got famous in LA, but the real NBA Champions would come from his hometown (revealed his LeBron Jersey) of Cleveland, Ohio. He starts taking shots at the Lakers to get more heat from the crowd, and talked about Cena, who made his way to the ring.
Cena walked out, and when he was diving into the ropes, Priceless attacked and proceeded to beat down Cena with Miz’s help. Batista came out and cleared house, Show came out and started attacking them, Lawler tried to help only to be head butted out of the situation… but Batista and Cena threw Show out of the ring with a solid pop.
Opening Segment Rating: ***
Could have been a bit cleaner and higher-impact with the main event scene, but it picks up later anyways. Good play on what happened this week, and getting the home crowd into the show playing on the NBA heat for Denver, and the WWE heat for Kroenke.
Divas Championship - Kelly Kelly vs. Maryse
Winner: Kelly Kelly via Disqualification
This match wasn’t too bad. Both performed decently in-ring, and both are nice to look at. They got a bit of a rough-streak going towards the end, when Maryse got on the outside of the ring and shoved Kelly onto the announce table, then shoved her over it (buildup for Extreme Rules anyone?). Then Maryse tried to beat the count, but the ref announced that she was disqualified.
Match Rating: *½
Did alright for what it was and what it was worth. Nothing spectacular but nothing overly wrong with it.
Backstage Segment - “Jack Nicholson”, Bella Twins, Goldust & Hornswoggle
The Bella Twins are arguing about how they could be good actors and shit, then Goldust and Hornswoggle appear. Goldust reverts back to his electrocution incident (and even hints at it) and then asks Nicholson if he and Hornswoggle can do a role. Nicholson says to do it and they do the shit, Nicholson says nice, and they celebrate their pleasing of the guy.
Segment Rating: *½
I don’t find much of anything with Hornswoggle entertaining, except what’s to come later. I always thought it was funny when Goldust did his twitch thing, so that was alright, glad he’s sticking to kayfabe from years ago, haha.
Locker Room Segment - Batista & Flair
Batista enters Flair’s locker room and asks him not to go out and confront Randy. He tells him to wait until after Extreme Rules to call him out since he’ll be beat up. Flair calls Batista a contradicting hypocrite in more words and storms out.
Segment Rating: **
Wasn’t long, but wasn’t bad. Everyone is going against Flair being back and wanting to go, and he seems desperate to go at it. It’s getting me wondering where they’re going to take this whole situation, and if Flair’s even going to be able to side with anyone at all.
Shot @ US Title Match Next Week’s Raw - Kofi Kingston vs. Matt Hardy vs. William Regal
Winner: Kofi Kingston
MVP wearing a headset next to Michael Cole and Jim Ross at the announce table gave us a refreshing ingredient to Raw. The match was picking up pretty quickly, a couple high-impact moves from everyone, some good momentum swings, and a lot of Matt Hardy attempting to use his cast. Regal attacked Hardy’s arm and played the conventional “smart-man” in the ring by trying to eliminate one or the other of his opponents from distraction. Everyone was getting pinfall attempts, Matt hit a few Side Effects, and then Kofi hit Regal with the Lost In Paradise. Matt tried a running “clothesline” with the cast, but Kofi ducked and hit the LIP on Matt when he turned around, and got the pin.
Match Rating: ***½
Pretty entertaining match. Regal dominated a fair bit, Matt’s selling the injury very well, and Kofi’s energy and charisma are skyrocketing. His rapport with the crowd is growing as well. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Matt Hardy in this though, and something tells me he gets inserted in next week’s match based on his “wrestling under protest” campaign.
In-ring Segment - Ric Flair vs. Orton
Flair comes out with a good pop as always. He says he wants Orton to be the man and come beat him up face to face. Voices blasts and Orton comes out, telling Ric it’s over, and he just doesn’t get it. Ric tries to cut him off, but Orton gets demanding, seemingly personal (which sold this segment beautifully in my eyes). He tells Flair everyone used him, and now they’re all feeling sorry for him. He tells him it’s over and Flair slaps Orton, who attacks Flair. Batista rushes to the ring and Randy leaves fast, Flair’s being held back by Batista and he’s going irate. Orton tells Batista that after Extreme Rules, he’ll be finished just like Flair.
Then Kennedy’s music hits with a fairly big pop. He calls for the mic, and I’m anticipating an Orton attack he’s so close to him on top of the ramp. He tells Orton it’s the beginning, and marks the return of the man who will soon be WWE Champion. He also announces he’ll be the 5th man on the “Lakers” team in the main event 5 vs. 5 match. “Miiiiisteerrrrrrrrrrrr… KENNEDYYYYY!” Orton leaves the arena mid-chant.
…“KEN-NUH-DYYYY!”
Segment Rating: ***½
Pretty decent on Flair and Orton’s behalf. Batista coming to Ric’s aid has me waiting to see Flair snap about being coddled and doubted. Awesome seeing Kennedy back and well-accepted. His promo was solid for the most part.
Mix Tag Match - Santino & Mickie James vs. Chavo Guerrero & Beth Phoenix w/ Rosa
Winner: Santino & Mickie James
Chavo and Santino start the match, I’m bored. Cant keep focus. Mickie and Beth end up in the ring somehow, Mickie rolls up Beth and gets the pin.
Vickie comes out to, STILL the most heat in the entire E, maybe even professional wrestling. She says she’s not worried about the stipulation Santino chooses for her match with Santina for Miss WrestleMania.
Santino blurts out this “Leaning Tower of Pizza Pepperoni” bullshit, then some kinda pole match (I don’t want to see Santino…err…a, or Vickie on a fucking pole). Then announces something about a pigpen match or some dumb shit, and Chavo looks sick and they leave.
Match/Segment Rating: */*
Nothing spectacular about any of this. I kinda chuckled at Santino’s ideas for the matches, but not really out of humor, but disbelief of the horrendous turn Santino has taken. How did this guy become a face again anyways!?
Backstage Segment - The Miz & Big Show
Show tells Miz nobody likes him, fans or wrestlers, and that if he wants to scrap with Cena, go ahead. He tells him nobody will pin Cena, that’s for Show to do. He walks away and Miz says “What? Like you did at Judgment Day?” Show asks what he said and Miz acts like he said nothing.
Segment Rating: *½
Just because it’s Miz and they’re really serious about pushing him. I like his character, he’s just arrogant, sly, and an asshole.
Goldust & Hornswoggle vs. The Brian Kendrick & Festus
Winner: Goldust & Hornswoggle
The Colons are at the announce table, and Festus starts the match off. He snaps and Goldust runs to his corner. Hornswoggle tags himself in and stares down Festus who refuses to fight. Kendrick tags himself in and starts shoving Hornswoggle around. He puts him in a small package, and Carlito says “putting a little person in a small package” and I can’t help but laugh at how much of an asshole that comment made Carlito appear. Kendrick tries to tag Festus in, Festus wont tag, he gets slapped and snaps. Kendrick gets caught with the “Curtain Call” and Tadpole Splash and gets pinned. He gets mad at Festus, then goes and grabs a chair. Carlito whispers to Primo and says expect something funny. Kendrick is getting ready to hit Festus when the bell rings and Festus snaps. Kendrick runs and Festus is acting like a fucking idiot.
Match Rating: **
Nothing spectacular. They’re completely burying Kendrick, but hopefully it’s just about finding the right partner for the job. The ring bell isn’t comical anymore though.
5 vs. 5 “Lakers” vs. “Nuggets”
Winner: “Lakers”
They are introduced by the Lakers PA voice, given roster spots and numbers. They’re all wearing their own jerseys and numbers, which was a decent twist on an “outside of the norm” situation. Seeing Cena in a jersey was awesome as hell. Nostalgic even. Didn’t like seeing Batista wearing shorts though, lmfao!
Match-wise, it seemed to me like nobody from the Lakers got in the ring. Kennedy got beat the entire match, getting his midsection demolished. The Nuggets team did a great job of cutting the ring off and using dirty tactics. Eventually Cena got tagged in though, started doing his moves of doom, but tagged in MVP. Cena did the 5 Knuckle Shuffle while MVP did the Ballin’ Elbow Drop at the same time (I said earlier I can picture Cena and MVP teaming up against Priceless in the coming month(s) and this could have been an awesome preview of what to expect). MVP hit the playmaker and got the win. DiBiase hit his finisher, followed by the Mic Check on him, RKO on Kennedy, Batista goes for Batista bomb, Show grabs his throat, and Cena’s. They counter and hit a double suplex on Show and celebrate in the ring.
Match Rating: ****
4 stars in comparison to the night and for a Raw. With so many important names, on a night with the situation which happened this week and what they were doing with that situation, this match was fitting and did it’s work. Kennedy’s in-ring time to me seemed like a test for him more than it did just great work by the Nuggets team. It was cool seeing the end play out like it did with MVP getting the win, and not one of the established main eventers.
Match of the Night: Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match
I liked the flow and production of this match more than the main event. I know I rated it lower, but to me, it wasn’t cluttered or rushed and kind of disappointing in that everyone got to participate equally and display their craft.
Best segment: Flair vs. Orton with Kennedy return.
I just like the way they crafted this entire segment. I liked that it was personal, still fit kayfabe, and had some entertainment value with a bit of action. A returning Kennedy with the mystery-man announcement was a nice addition to the segment. Not taking anything away from the opener and doing what it was intended to do with everything that happened this week, but this segment was solid in my eyes.
Show Rating: ***
Decently put together, good balanced mixture of promos and matches. Nothing more exciting this week, but nothing that really dragged (other than mixed tag). I'm being somewhat generous with some of the poor performances, but taking it for what it is supposed to be worth. And again, this show wasn’t normal considering the events of this past week.