*Winners in Bold
From the city of New Jersey Raw starts of in a unusual way with the finals of the tag team tournament. Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio faced Rhodes Scholars to determine the #1 Contenders that will face Team Hell No at Hell in a Cell this Sunday.
Tag Team Tournament: Sin Cara & Rey Mysterio vs Rhodes Scholars—In a unusual way Raw started with a match that was supposed to happen past week. The match was an excellent way to start the show. Also the match was pretty entertaining. The four men looked good in the ring and at the end the your team of Rhodes Scholars got the win clean. After the win there was a nice interaction with Team Hell no the current tag team champion and the contenders. This will be a nice match this Sunday.
Kofi Kingston vs Michael McGilicutty with The Miz at commentary—The new Intercontinental champion faced Michael McGilicutty in a really good short match. Is nice to see that they gave them both time and McGilicutty looked good against a current WWE Champion. Matches like this do more for both performers than squash matches. After the win there was a nice staredown between former champion Miz and Kofi, their match at Hell in a Cell might be really interesting this Sunday.
A healed up John Cena appeared to put Ryback once again over. It looks like Ryback’s new mouthpiece is Cena. He claims that this Sunday we will see the change when Ryback defeats CM Punk. That’s when Punk comes out trashes the Giants the current NFL Champions. He then tells Cena that there has been change because over one year he hasn’t been Champion. When Cena informs he is cleared to compete he provokes CM Punk who goes like a crazed man to the ring but is stopped by Heyman. Each day that passes on Heyman looks like Punk’s conscience.
Antonio Cesaro vs Justin Gabriel—A rematch from last week match. Once again nice short match. With Gabriel’s victory there might be a upcoming program between the two. A feud between the two might help elevate each other and the title itself.
A limousine is shown with Vince McMahon and the Raw GM AJ Lee coming out of it.
Vince McMahon and AJ Lee are in the middle of the ring ready to announce what went down on the Board of Directors reunion. AJ Lee explained that thanks to some allegations of her fraternizing with Superstars she had to resign. After the announcement no that surprising she talked about how she went from homeless to be the boss. After her heartbreaking story Paul Heyman interrupted. Just lime the slimy guy he is he tries to get the Raw GM position but Mr. McMahon says that Vickie Guerrero got the Managing Supervisor of Raw gig. After that Vickie appears and as she talks over the loud boos Heyman proposes that the main event for Hell in a Cell be called off because Ryback is a “Punk eating Carnivore”. But Vickie says now and says CM Punk will face CM Punk in the biggest lumberjack match in history against Sheamus in the main event. After that she goes to AJ and says the allegations are that AJ lee had an affair with a superstar. After this a mad AJ attacks Vickie to end the segment.
Ryback vs The Miz—As expected a squash match in which “Goldberg” and “Feed Me More” chants.
Eve Torres is backstage talking about AJ when Kaitlyn appears. Kaitlyn tells her show knows about the attack. After that the two brawl backstage until Layla appears and joins the action.
Josh Mathews is interviewing Sheamus who is being his Irish Cena self until Big Show appears. Show tells Sheamus once again to take it serious.
Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler—With Vickie’s new position it looks like Dolph Ziggler is on his own. As expected from these two the in-ring action was great. Without Vickie on his side the crowd seems to be more in favor of Ziggler and without someone on his side he was outnumbered when Kane came out to Daniel’s side. But when Kane started to cheer his teammate he distracted him causing him to lose. It looks like Ziggler has some momentum for this Sunday.
Matt Striker appears and tells the Tag Team Champs they will be participants in the Newly tag Game against Rhodes Scholars.
The New Tag Game starts with the Champions introducing themselves which is hilarious, especially when Kane introduces themselves. When they start arguing Rhodes Scholars appear and tell they will not be part of the game which is also funny. After that Striker announces that Team Hell No is the winner and Bryan starts to celebrate. Kane decides to celebrate but by going after Striker but he runs and tells he doesn’t wish them good luck. But that isn’t a happy ending for Striker because he ends on the bad side of Big Show and ends being thrown on the ramp. Thankfully that didn’t last long and it didn’t bomb on their faces.
Big Show vs Kane w/ Daniel Bryan—Thankfully a short match that ended thanks to Rhodes Scholars distraction. After Kane got knocked out Rhodes Scholars attacked Daniel Bryan. A hot night for Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes.
Backstage Santino Marella is with AJ then John Cena appears. AJ reveals that the alleged affair she had was with him and that’s why she resigned. The segment closes with Cena hugging her and telling her everything will be alright.
John Cena is backstage with Vince McMahon who tells him there is incriminating evidence. After that Mr. McMahon goes and Cena is left trying to save the damsel in distress.
Zack Ryder vs Alberto del Rio (via sub) w/Ricardo Rodriguez—Short match with Alberto defeating Zack for the 10th time. After his win Alberto del Rio takes the microphone and cuts a promo on Randy Orton.
John Cena makes his way into Vickie’s office and claim for costing AJ’s job. Vickie just tells him he was the one who cost AJ’s job.
Josh Mathews interview Ziggler who tells that AJ got what she deserved. Also that Cena is the one at fault.
Backstage in his locker room CM Punk is once again talking about he is being disrespected. Then Paul Heyman says that next Monday he will still be WWE Champion and not to let things get into his head.
Lumberjack Match: CM Punk vs Sheamus—In a match where practically half of the time I was looking to see who was still employed both World Champions faced. This was a nice match that had some time. Is nice that the WWE Champion CM Punk got the win thanks to the #1 Contender interfering. Ryback coming out and attacking CM Punk on multiple occasions didn’t feel like the big ending the show needed. Even the crowd didn’t seem impressed by it. Punk looks strong for the match and so does Ryback, but still the match doesn’t look interesting.
Strong show that put the tag division and Money in the Bank holder as their priority. Hell in a Cell still doesn’t look like a interesting pay-per-view and the current GM drama isn’t interesting at all. Looks like Cena is good and ready to go but he is stuck with AJ. Monday it will be an interesting scenario to see how this weird Raw GM fraternizing with workers plays out.
Final Score: 8/10
