Live from Oklahoma City the hometown of Hall of Famer Jim Ross it took place the episode #1010 of Monday Night Raw. In a night full of Punk, JR’s appreciation night, tag team action and even a debate the WWE brought what might has been one of the worst or most bland show of this year.
*Winners in Bold
The show kicks off with the WWE Champion CM Punk accompanied by Paul Heyman. CM Punk talks about what happened last week between him and Mick Foley, and he also once again says no to a Hell in a Cell match between him and John Cena. He then gives his microphone to Paul Heyman who starts to talk about what went down last week between him and AJ. He then reminds everybody about the memo AJ received from the Board of Directors in which they informed the GM that she couldn’t put her hands on any wrestler or manager. After that people with microphones started to appear. First it was Vickie Guerrero with her client Mr. Money in the Bank Dolph Ziggler. She started talking about her being the new GM and then Dolph proposed that Heyman and Vickie should be co-general managers. That’s when the GM appeared and said that the Board of the Directors assigned her a Executive Coach. Then Bryan’s music hits and he appears followed by his tag team partner Kane. The whole segment ended with AJ Lee putting all four of them in a tag team match in the main event.
8-Team Tournament Match—Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs Epico & Primo w/ Rosa Mendes: In this single elimination tournament seed we had the Mexicans Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio facing the Puerto Ricans Epico and Primo. In this Latin encounter the Mexicans showed a lot of good moves, best showing from them as a team so far. Also seeing Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio wear the same colors makes them look like a team, plus the Prime Time Players on the ramp watching the match of their next opponents in the tournament makes the division feel important again.
Brodus Clay vs Antonio Cesaro: It looks like Clay isn’t a shinning star for the WWE. First he got the jobbers entrance and then lost. Well he had a less than a minute match with a man that carried his 300 plus pounds to hit his finisher the Neutralizer. Someone in the WWE like Antonio and that’s good, also him hitting the Neutralizer was impressive.
AJ has an interaction backstage with her once best friend Kaitlyn. She introduces her to Mr. Stevenson her Executive Coach and then proceeds to apologize about how their friendship ended. After that she started laughing and took back the apology. Each day that goes on AJ being in charge looks like a bad idea.
Zack Ryder vs The Miz: Short match between these two with The Miz taking the victory. Not a lot to add but The Miz needs an opponent, Ryback seemed like a good idea but WWE has a bad plan in mind with Ryback.
For some reason someone thought that a debate between Big Show and Sheamus was a good idea, I think that person now is fired. Sure at the beginning of the 2012 we got a Debate with the Raw Elimination Chamber Participants, but that had great guys behind the microphone. Sheamus isn’t funny and this wasn’t funny. Not Even Big Show’s podium thought it was funny as it dismantle just to not be witness of this horrible segment.
Tensai vs Ryback: A repeat of Smackdown only this time it ended with a clothesline. Ryback didn’t get Tensai up for his finisher. Things like this makes you think that WWE is moving to fast with him, he doesn’t belong in the WWE title scene because he isn’t ready.
The new Rhodes Scholars are shown backstage talking about the horrible debate, that’s something no one can argue about.
Eve Torres vs Beth Phoenix: Short divas match with Brad Maddox refereeing. Weird seeing him in action a week after what went down with Punk.
Once again AJ is shown backstage with Mr. Stevenson. This time she has a conversation with Wade Barrett who tells her how terrible she is as a GM.
Santino Marella vs Heath Slater w/ Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal: Slater faced Santino with his Jobber Squad at his side. The match ended in DQ when Slater’s allies entered the ring to beat up Marella. What’s next for the Jobber Squad. Does anyone care?
Sheamus vs Damien Sandow: Outstanding match that helped both men. Damien Sandow as a “rookie” took the World Champion to the limits and Sheamus proved to be a fighting champion. With showings like this one Sheamus proves to be a deserving champion not with comedy things like the debate.
It was time for Jim Ross appreciation night but since they were in Oklahoma like history tells it didn’t go well for JR. The WWE Champion with Paul Heyman’s company crashed the party. In another excellent segment of legends telling Punk to face Cena in the Hell in a Cell match these two had a really good interaction. The only downside is that it doesn’t make sense that Punk has to beat a man that he has beaten multiple times to cement his legacy, they should save this for The Rock. The true highlight was CM Punk making reference to Stone Cold as he earlier did in the opening segment. Tonight was CM Punk’s 316 day as champion and he obviously used Steve JR’s old friend to bully the commentator. That’s the reason this segment was so disappointing because we didn’t get the bald headed man that we wanted, we got Ryback.
Alberto del Rio (via Sub) vs Kofi Kingston w/ R-Truth with Ricardo Rodriguez at Commentary: Short match overshadowed by Ricardo’s good commentary. Ricardo really is a talented guy that deserves more.
AJ is backstage with Mr. Stevenson and after some crazy stuff she says she doesn’t need him. What was the point of that?
Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan & Kane) vs CM Punk w/ Paul Heyman & Dolph Ziggler w/ Vickie Guerrero with Special Guest Referee AJ Lee: For some reason when you have three of the Best Wrestlers in the World and you need AJ in the match. Good match overall but what went down made the worst ending of Raw, well the most uninteresting ending of Raw. AJ kicked off both Heyman and Guerrero and like Punk did on Montreal Dolph left him. CM Punk then lost the match and the tag team champions argue again to close the show. Is nice to see the tag division to get the spotlight but that ending didn’t make me excited for next week, nothing on the show made me excited.
By the looks of it WWE isn’t capable of having to great shows in a row. Last week they managed to make everything in the show mean something. This week the show didn’t have the same feel. The start was just Smackdown booking 101. X wrestler is in the ring and is joined by Y wrestler after some words out come A wrestler and B wrestler, then after some arguing comes the GM and makes XY face AB. Math exists in wrestling. CM Punk’s segments with legends so far have been great and I hope that next week we get the Rowdy Roddy Piper segment I’ve been dreaming ages ago. After this show I don’t look forward for anything. I don’t want to see Big Show vs Sheamus, I don’t want Ryback to get a shot at the WWE title and AJ needs to go.
Previous Week Score: 9.5
This weeks Score: 7/10
