Monday Night RAW - November 22, 2010
It’s been a hot minute/year or so since I reviewed Survivor Series 2010, but I didn’t fancy giving it a second go around when it’s been done before. I feel like following on from where the pay-per-view left off is a good starting place if there ever is one. The show introduction did a good job of outlining the jist of what happened pretty nicely.
I like the use of Trish Stratus as an authority figure here, and can imagine she would do very well in this role as RAW General Manager. I could envision there being revenge spots on the show for Trish to task Vickie Guerrero with for laughs. Overall it was a pretty basic opening promo that did what it intended to do, and that was set up the build for Armageddon.
It’s unusual to see Paul Heyman here in 2009, and I’m not sure how I feel about him going practically all the way with Lance Cade as his new Brock Lesnar. It’s a little bit too on the nose for me. That aside, I was a big Cade fan and it’s such a tragedy what happened to him. Surprisingly clean win for him against Shelton Benjamin to retain the WWE United States Championship. I suppose he needed it after being on the losing end at Survivor Series.
I like the use of dialogue, but there are times I feel like it becomes a tad too bulky. I think with Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler’s lines, they sound essentially the same in character and in tone. It could be worth studying Lawler’s color commentary that little bit extra to add a more unique spin on his character. It does feel less conversational when reading them speak in paragraphs, but it makes it tidier to follow. Beyond that, it makes for great additional context for the uninformed reader.
I’ve got a hot take, and that is I actually unironically enjoyed the Jack Swagger and Big Show rivalry which built into Over the Limit 2010. I was surprised to see Big Show get the best of Swagger in this exchange, but it means for a better mix of talent in the Fatal 4-Way match. I can’t see Show winning the WWE Championship at this stage of his career, though.
I’m still curious how Carlito and Chris Masters manage to get the band back together after three years apart. I’ve always been a fan of Masters, especially in this tenure of his career. He really stepped it up a lot, which is what I wish I could say for Carlito, who felt like he was on his way out by this point. Kofi Kingston I’m hopeful can make his way to the upper-echelon of the roster in the near future.
I’ve always been big on Marcus Cor Von, in fact I recall a WWE 2007 diary where I had him dominate as ECW World Champion. It’s such a shame his career went a different direction, and he was forced to step out when he did. I don’t think he’s the best talker on his own, but I see potential with what you might have in store for him.
I feel like no pair of female talents wrestled more than Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly in the entirety of the 2010s. I must have subliminally watched at least 50 of them, or maybe they simply haunt me to this day. With all jokes aside, they had decent enough chemistry and Kelly’s best matches were with Beth. Unsurprising win from Beth, hot off the angle with Mickie James last night.
The Chris Jericho and Triple H promo was really solid, though I feel like Jericho came across as a goof compared to HHH. Maybe that was the intention with realism intended - I can envision that perfectly, and it does fit Jericho’s character. So far I see the Fatal 4-Way match serving as a sufficient vehicle for Jericho to once again slither away with the WWE Championship.
It is matches like this where I am glad NXT never happened. Matt Hardy and Richie Steamboat going over Kaval and Chavo Guerrero made for a RAW undercard match in 2010. I am conflicted in my opinions of Richie as a talent. While he had a tremendous shadow to step out of after his father Ricky Steamboat, I was often of the opinion Richie was green and quite generic. Still, it is a tremendous shame he is another one whose career never panned out properly. I suspect this sets up the WWE Cruiserweight Championship direction this next couple of months. I wonder what Matt’s doing, besides from floating.
The John Cena and Randy Orton promo was interesting, to say the least. It puts an interesting spin on Cena’s career progression, though I do think it is still somewhat early for him to Embrace The Hate. It could build to a superb psychological rivalry though, that’s for sure. In another time frame, I would have hated seeing a diary do a Cena vs Orton feud, but this came across juicy.
I’ll admit I am not the biggest fan of having the Undertaker and Kane main event this edition of RAW in 2010. No doubt it would draw really well, but I was always of the belief they had no right being on top and feuding in real life around this time. It served its purpose in putting Kane over, as well as progressing Undertaker’s issues with Christian, with Christian getting a mighty shine here.
The stage is set for Armageddon’s main event, and while I like the gimmick of a Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE Championship, with the odds greatly stacked against Chris Jericho the way they have, it is certainly a unique field of challengers you’ve aligned. Then again, perhaps that’s the idea, with the intention being to make it seem like Jericho has absolutely zero chance against the likes of Triple H, Big Show and Kane. Still, this feels slightly like a dystopian vision of what the top of the card looks like in the year 2010. All four were greatly influential ten years prior in the Attitude Era, and to an extent it comes across as though the future is underneath remaining overshadowed. It works for Armageddon, but hopefully in 2011 we start to see new names get the big pushes. It was an over reliance WWE had in real life around this time - let’s see you build the universe anew.
WWE Superstars - November 25, 2010
In order to gain an expansive understanding of the product you’ve built, I feel compelled to throw in a freebie here looking at this show. For all intents and purposes, WWE Superstars by the end of 2010 was a glorified C-show, but it was always a compelling watch, particularly in that it would broadcast one match each from the Monday Night RAW taping and the Friday Night SmackDown taping. Plus, I’ve always been a big fan of undercard talents! It’s a great source of creativity in practice.
I’m pleasantly surprised to see the Straight Edge Society still aligned at this stage. I wonder when or if CM Punk will ever shed the hair, get the tattoo and cut the Pipebomb promo. I do like Luke Harper being in the faction, though where did Mark come from? I figure it might have to do with Punk’s left-hand man already being called Luke Gallows. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see a focus on Serena here, and while I’m not sure about her using the Serenity Lock this early in her career, it was a decent win against the newly-returned Maria. I’m wondering if she’ll be a mainstay or if she’ll be out the door again after this. In terms of positioning on the show, I maybe wouldn’t have had this open, admittedly.
Big Show’s interview was decent enough, it outlined the history he had with the other three competitors in the Fatal 4-Way match at Armageddon. I still can’t see him leaving WWE Champion, though.
Chavo Guerrero has got himself a raw deal this week, hasn’t he? Good win by Marcus Cor Von, as one could have expected. I can imagine you don’t have much time for Chavo, and at this stage of his career, who can blame you? Going back to commentary, I do feel like Michael Cole oversold the dominance of Cor Von by mentioning how nobody has ever made a debut like him in the history of Monday Night RAW.
Rough Justice are a great UKHC band. Anyway…Vance Archer and Tyler Reks, what an interesting pair of names! I guess I’m not too surprised to see them tower over Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. It gets them over, and surely sets them out for a future opportunity at the WWE Tag Team Championship. Still not keen on the names, but this is WWE we’re talking about. At least it’s a unique direction.
MVP’s promo was pretty fun to read. I do like the idea of Alberto Del Rio clinging onto Hunico as his second, though my god do I not miss the vacuum of charisma, Ted Dibiase Jr. It’s hilarious in hindsight, because everybody (myself included) thought 2010 was going to be his year. It came, it went, and now look where he is, and look where Cody Rhodes is. Sheesh.
There’s a lot of talk about 2010 drawing to an end, and that’s fine, but we’ve not even reached December yet. Still plenty of time for guys like Rey Mysterio and Gregory Helms to get ahead before the new year! It read like a decent main event, and served its purpose of giving them a key position on this week’s show.
Overall, I can see things moving more clearly in looking at the undercard you have in motion on Superstars. I was surprised to hear no mention of Thanksgiving, given this is the last Thursday of November. I’ll be back with an evaluation of Friday Night SmackDown whenever it goes live. Nice world ya got here.
It’s been a hot minute/year or so since I reviewed Survivor Series 2010, but I didn’t fancy giving it a second go around when it’s been done before. I feel like following on from where the pay-per-view left off is a good starting place if there ever is one. The show introduction did a good job of outlining the jist of what happened pretty nicely.
I like the use of Trish Stratus as an authority figure here, and can imagine she would do very well in this role as RAW General Manager. I could envision there being revenge spots on the show for Trish to task Vickie Guerrero with for laughs. Overall it was a pretty basic opening promo that did what it intended to do, and that was set up the build for Armageddon.
It’s unusual to see Paul Heyman here in 2009, and I’m not sure how I feel about him going practically all the way with Lance Cade as his new Brock Lesnar. It’s a little bit too on the nose for me. That aside, I was a big Cade fan and it’s such a tragedy what happened to him. Surprisingly clean win for him against Shelton Benjamin to retain the WWE United States Championship. I suppose he needed it after being on the losing end at Survivor Series.
I like the use of dialogue, but there are times I feel like it becomes a tad too bulky. I think with Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler’s lines, they sound essentially the same in character and in tone. It could be worth studying Lawler’s color commentary that little bit extra to add a more unique spin on his character. It does feel less conversational when reading them speak in paragraphs, but it makes it tidier to follow. Beyond that, it makes for great additional context for the uninformed reader.
I’ve got a hot take, and that is I actually unironically enjoyed the Jack Swagger and Big Show rivalry which built into Over the Limit 2010. I was surprised to see Big Show get the best of Swagger in this exchange, but it means for a better mix of talent in the Fatal 4-Way match. I can’t see Show winning the WWE Championship at this stage of his career, though.
I’m still curious how Carlito and Chris Masters manage to get the band back together after three years apart. I’ve always been a fan of Masters, especially in this tenure of his career. He really stepped it up a lot, which is what I wish I could say for Carlito, who felt like he was on his way out by this point. Kofi Kingston I’m hopeful can make his way to the upper-echelon of the roster in the near future.
I’ve always been big on Marcus Cor Von, in fact I recall a WWE 2007 diary where I had him dominate as ECW World Champion. It’s such a shame his career went a different direction, and he was forced to step out when he did. I don’t think he’s the best talker on his own, but I see potential with what you might have in store for him.
I feel like no pair of female talents wrestled more than Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly in the entirety of the 2010s. I must have subliminally watched at least 50 of them, or maybe they simply haunt me to this day. With all jokes aside, they had decent enough chemistry and Kelly’s best matches were with Beth. Unsurprising win from Beth, hot off the angle with Mickie James last night.
The Chris Jericho and Triple H promo was really solid, though I feel like Jericho came across as a goof compared to HHH. Maybe that was the intention with realism intended - I can envision that perfectly, and it does fit Jericho’s character. So far I see the Fatal 4-Way match serving as a sufficient vehicle for Jericho to once again slither away with the WWE Championship.
It is matches like this where I am glad NXT never happened. Matt Hardy and Richie Steamboat going over Kaval and Chavo Guerrero made for a RAW undercard match in 2010. I am conflicted in my opinions of Richie as a talent. While he had a tremendous shadow to step out of after his father Ricky Steamboat, I was often of the opinion Richie was green and quite generic. Still, it is a tremendous shame he is another one whose career never panned out properly. I suspect this sets up the WWE Cruiserweight Championship direction this next couple of months. I wonder what Matt’s doing, besides from floating.
The John Cena and Randy Orton promo was interesting, to say the least. It puts an interesting spin on Cena’s career progression, though I do think it is still somewhat early for him to Embrace The Hate. It could build to a superb psychological rivalry though, that’s for sure. In another time frame, I would have hated seeing a diary do a Cena vs Orton feud, but this came across juicy.
I’ll admit I am not the biggest fan of having the Undertaker and Kane main event this edition of RAW in 2010. No doubt it would draw really well, but I was always of the belief they had no right being on top and feuding in real life around this time. It served its purpose in putting Kane over, as well as progressing Undertaker’s issues with Christian, with Christian getting a mighty shine here.
The stage is set for Armageddon’s main event, and while I like the gimmick of a Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE Championship, with the odds greatly stacked against Chris Jericho the way they have, it is certainly a unique field of challengers you’ve aligned. Then again, perhaps that’s the idea, with the intention being to make it seem like Jericho has absolutely zero chance against the likes of Triple H, Big Show and Kane. Still, this feels slightly like a dystopian vision of what the top of the card looks like in the year 2010. All four were greatly influential ten years prior in the Attitude Era, and to an extent it comes across as though the future is underneath remaining overshadowed. It works for Armageddon, but hopefully in 2011 we start to see new names get the big pushes. It was an over reliance WWE had in real life around this time - let’s see you build the universe anew.
WWE Superstars - November 25, 2010
In order to gain an expansive understanding of the product you’ve built, I feel compelled to throw in a freebie here looking at this show. For all intents and purposes, WWE Superstars by the end of 2010 was a glorified C-show, but it was always a compelling watch, particularly in that it would broadcast one match each from the Monday Night RAW taping and the Friday Night SmackDown taping. Plus, I’ve always been a big fan of undercard talents! It’s a great source of creativity in practice.
I’m pleasantly surprised to see the Straight Edge Society still aligned at this stage. I wonder when or if CM Punk will ever shed the hair, get the tattoo and cut the Pipebomb promo. I do like Luke Harper being in the faction, though where did Mark come from? I figure it might have to do with Punk’s left-hand man already being called Luke Gallows. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see a focus on Serena here, and while I’m not sure about her using the Serenity Lock this early in her career, it was a decent win against the newly-returned Maria. I’m wondering if she’ll be a mainstay or if she’ll be out the door again after this. In terms of positioning on the show, I maybe wouldn’t have had this open, admittedly.
Big Show’s interview was decent enough, it outlined the history he had with the other three competitors in the Fatal 4-Way match at Armageddon. I still can’t see him leaving WWE Champion, though.
Chavo Guerrero has got himself a raw deal this week, hasn’t he? Good win by Marcus Cor Von, as one could have expected. I can imagine you don’t have much time for Chavo, and at this stage of his career, who can blame you? Going back to commentary, I do feel like Michael Cole oversold the dominance of Cor Von by mentioning how nobody has ever made a debut like him in the history of Monday Night RAW.
Rough Justice are a great UKHC band. Anyway…Vance Archer and Tyler Reks, what an interesting pair of names! I guess I’m not too surprised to see them tower over Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. It gets them over, and surely sets them out for a future opportunity at the WWE Tag Team Championship. Still not keen on the names, but this is WWE we’re talking about. At least it’s a unique direction.
MVP’s promo was pretty fun to read. I do like the idea of Alberto Del Rio clinging onto Hunico as his second, though my god do I not miss the vacuum of charisma, Ted Dibiase Jr. It’s hilarious in hindsight, because everybody (myself included) thought 2010 was going to be his year. It came, it went, and now look where he is, and look where Cody Rhodes is. Sheesh.
There’s a lot of talk about 2010 drawing to an end, and that’s fine, but we’ve not even reached December yet. Still plenty of time for guys like Rey Mysterio and Gregory Helms to get ahead before the new year! It read like a decent main event, and served its purpose of giving them a key position on this week’s show.
Overall, I can see things moving more clearly in looking at the undercard you have in motion on Superstars. I was surprised to hear no mention of Thanksgiving, given this is the last Thursday of November. I’ll be back with an evaluation of Friday Night SmackDown whenever it goes live. Nice world ya got here.
