Well it’s another go home edition of RAW and if you feel like there was just one of these recently, then you’re right. Night of Champions was only a few weeks ago and Hell In A Cell is in another few weeks. As is usually the case the week of a PPV, the card has yet to be filled out. So what matches will be added? How will Punk respond to the hometown beating at the hands of Ryback and Third Wheel Axel? Will Cody and Goldust attack The Shield again? How many people will Roman Reigns Spear this week? Will the Hardcore Rules stipulation of the WHC match make anyone care about it? Will Bryan-Orton get a stipulation of their own? How will HHH do What’s Best For Business this week?
Best
John who?: If you’ve been watching RAW over the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed the absence of John Cena and his rah-rah promos. However, Punk and Bryan have more then filled in as the top face role. Even though Bryan’s anti-corporate storyline seems tailor made for Punk, it was a wise move to keep him and Bryan in separate angles. Both of those stories have provided viewers with some of the best TV we’ve seen in a long time. It is a coincidence that this has occurred while SuperCena is out of the picture? Of course Cena will eventually come back and barge his way into the WWE title scene, thus probably relegating Bryan and Punk to the 2A and 2B face roles. Still we all should enjoy this while it lasts.
Tag Teams: Sure The Shield has held the Tag Titles for the past 4 1/2 months and doesn’t look like they’ll drop them anytime soon, but at least there are plenty of potential challengers. Of course there are the comedy/jobber teams of Tons of Funk and 3MB that the other pairings can beat up on. Los Matadores finally made their debut and it was…interesting to say the least. The ones that appear to have the most momentum are The Usos and Prime Time Players. Usos may be the #1 contenders, but PTP have MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
Psychology: Punk has made it very clear that he wants to get his hands on Paul Heyman. The story is that his emotions get the better of him and he goes after The Paulrus only to get jumped by Axel and/or Ryback, letting Heyman get the upper hand. It appeared that was what was going to happen when Punk’s music hit during the Axel-Truth match. However, he didn’t come out and it was enough of a distraction for Truth to get the victory. What sold it was the expression on Heyman’s face as he realized he was had. As great as it would have been for Punk to run down and beat on Axel, this was a much better choice. He’s turned the tables on Heyman and proved he can play mind games as well.
JBL Great Quote of The Night: ‘Watching Fandango is like watching a male Shakira’ and ‘Fandango is like Usher crossed with Randy Couture’
Worst
Lawler: When was the last time Jerry was a consistently good commentator? People tuning into RAW can expect lame references and corny jokes every time from him. It’s an incredible stark contrast to have him at the same announcer table with JBL and Cole. Those two have chemistry and their back-and-forth is actually enjoyable. Then there’s Lawler who, more often then not, jumps in with something he thinks is funny and thus kills the mood. At least it’s not as bad as when there’s a Divas segment, unless AJ is also on commentary to show him up.
Ziggler: Wasn’t it just a few short months ago that Ziggler was cashing in his MITB to win the WHC and pandamonium ensued among the crowd? It appeared he was on the track to the main event, but as is usual with his past pushes it falls short. It’s no far lack of effort on his part, as he stills sells better then anyone and gets big pops. Tonight it was made very clear how far he’s fallen when it was announced he would have a match at Battleground but on the Pre-Show and not the actual event. Plus he faces Damien Sandow, the current WHC MITB holder, so there’s irony there for sure.
Questionable
Crunch Time: Not only is it the time of year where WWE has to compete with Monday Night Football, but it’s the time where the company crams PPVs into shorter time periods. Starting with Night of Champions, going on to Battleground this Sunday and ending with Hell In A Cell in late Novemeber, it’s a 6 week stretch of 3 PPVs. That’s a questionable decision for many reasons. First, do they really expect people to shell out that much money, especially when NOC was considered sub-par? Second, with the condensed time frame of only 3 weeks between PPVs, there’s not really enough time to build new feuds so most of the matches will be rematches. The condensed time period also runs the risk of burning people out due to overload. Then again at least it’s 12 events a year instead of 13 like the past few years.
