BRM Reviews the 8/20/2012 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- good. "Master of the Brock-tagon" was genius.

SIN CARA, KOFI KINGSTON & R-TRUTH vs. THE PRIMETIME PLAYERS & CODY RHODES- 5.5/10
A decent match, but it had the same damn finish as Cody vs. Sin Cara from last week.
Lawler says that Dusty told him that "when Cody was a baby, he was so ugly that they would sit him in the corner and feed him with a slingshot." THIS is a Jerry Lawler I want announcing!

MATT STRIKER INTERVIEWS AJ- eh segment, but at least it set up a match for later tonight.

RYBACK vs. TWO JOBBERS- No rating. AWESOME segment. Ryback powering out of the Camel Clutch was great!

AJ MAKES A REMATCH BETWEEN JERICHO & ZIGGLER WITH HIGHER STAKES- WTF?! They have a normal match on PPV they have a Career vs. MITB Briefcase match on regular TV?

RANDY ORTON vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 6/10

CM PUNK PROMO- good.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. BRODUS CLAY (w/The Funkadactyls)- no rating, good segment. Sandow cheats to win. Then Brodus gets pissed and attacks him after the match, which will give Sandow some great fuel for his next promo.

HBK INTERVIEW- not bad, but just felt kind of unnecessary.

DAVID OTUNGA vs. THE BIG SHOW- squash

BIG SHOW PROMO FROM AFTER SUMMER SLAM- good.

DANIEL BRYAN & THE MIZ vs. ZACK RYDER & KANE- no rating. Good segment

JOHN CENA COMMENTS FROM AFTER SUMMER SLAM- not good. Cena really didn't say anything at all.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP DIVAS BATTLE ROYALE- 0.5/10.
A poorly put together clusterduck.

BROCK QUITS- didn't see that coming. We'll see where this goes, but it seems funky.

MITB CONTRACT VS. WWE CONTRACT MATCH: Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero) vs. Chris Jericho- 6.5/10
I was eh on the aftermath. Lawler came off like a total idiot defending Jericho here.

CLOSING SEGMENT- Not where I thought this was going. I thought Punk was going to give Cena the match if Cena agreed that if he lost the match, he would not be able to challenge for as long as Punk is champ. The segment did its job well, but it is extremely hard to enjoy if you don't like the route they seem to be taking Punk. I also hated Lawler not saying Punk is the best in the world. Punk has been the WWE Champion for nine months, and has won every match cleanly! Lawler seems entirely unreasonable in denying it.

Dear G-d! This show had a FIFTEEN MINUTE overrun! In addition to the three hours! If you can't fit everything into a three hour show, unless it is a supercard, you are doing something wrong.

Overall, an okay episode of Raw. The segments were good, but it wasn't too good in the ring.

[KILLdozer]

I thought for sure that he was gonna tell Cena "Say you RESPECT me and you get the match." since this whole things been about respect that would have been a perfect way to drive things home and get under everyones skin...then I thought he was gonna choose lawler as his opponent after Cena left....Nothing gets respect like defeating a hall of famer on PPV to retain...

[Big Red Machine]

I thought for sure that he was gonna tell Cena "Say you RESPECT me and you get the match." since this whole things been about respect that would have been a perfect way to drive things home and get under everyones skin...then I thought he was gonna choose lawler as his opponent after Cena left....Nothing gets respect like defeating a hall of famer on PPV to retain...

Unless that hall of famer is old, past his prime, and not an active wrestler. Beating Jerry Lawler now does not get you respect.

[KILLdozer]

I thought for sure that he was gonna tell Cena "Say you RESPECT me and you get the match." since this whole things been about respect that would have been a perfect way to drive things home and get under everyones skin...then I thought he was gonna choose lawler as his opponent after Cena left....Nothing gets respect like defeating a hall of famer on PPV to retain...

Unless that hall of famer is old, past his prime, and not an active wrestler. Beating Jerry Lawler now does not get you respect.

Hence comes into play the heel mindset...thats the entire point...Its not REAL respect...Come on i thought you knew better than that.

[Big Red Machine]

I thought for sure that he was gonna tell Cena "Say you RESPECT me and you get the match." since this whole things been about respect that would have been a perfect way to drive things home and get under everyones skin...then I thought he was gonna choose lawler as his opponent after Cena left....Nothing gets respect like defeating a hall of famer on PPV to retain...

Unless that hall of famer is old, past his prime, and not an active wrestler. Beating Jerry Lawler now does not get you respect.

Hence comes into play the heel mindset...thats the entire point...Its not REAL respect...Come on i thought you knew better than that.

But Punk's not a heel. He is a tweener. False respect is not what Punk wants. He wants real respect.

[KILLdozer]

Punk is going full hell,say what you will.To me that was part of the reason for the thing with Lawler,not to just look like a tweener...Hes a tweener because ppl wont stop cheering him...Hence you up the ante. And he has taken an obnoxious way at times about getting the respect .

[Big Red Machine]

Punk is going full hell,say what you will.To me that was part of the reason for the thing with Lawler,not to just look like a tweener...Hes a tweener because ppl wont stop cheering him...Hence you up the ante. And he has taken an obnoxious way at times about getting the respect .

No. He is a tweener because of his motivations and the way he goes about doing things. Yes, he is going to go full heel, but not yet. Not till at least Night of Champions. He won't just go heel. He needs to be driven to turn heel by the actions of the fans or management or something like that. For this to work, it can't just happen. It needs to be built to, and built to well.

[cero2k]

#1 CONTENDERSHIP DIVAS BATTLE ROYALE- 0.5/10.
A poorly put together clusterduck.

this was one of the most uncomfortable things to watch, it was just painful. i never thought i'd say this, but this lasted more that it should have

MITB CONTRACT VS. WWE CONTRACT MATCH: Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero) vs. Chris Jericho- 6.5/10
I was eh on the aftermath. Lawler came off like a total idiot defending Jericho here.

i've come to realize that this is why i hate Lawler, because he, as the face commentator is force to constantly defend things that don't usually seem logical to defend like Sheamus GTA or this.

[KILLdozer]

Punk is going full hell,say what you will.To me that was part of the reason for the thing with Lawler,not to just look like a tweener...Hes a tweener because ppl wont stop cheering him...Hence you up the ante. And he has taken an obnoxious way at times about getting the respect .

No. He is a tweener because of his motivations and the way he goes about doing things. Yes, he is going to go full heel, but not yet. Not till at least Night of Champions. He won't just go heel. He needs to be driven to turn heel by the actions of the fans or management or something like that. For this to work, it can't just happen. It needs to be built to, and built to well.

Of course,Of course it will be a slow build,with things like the Lawler thing feuling that...Im really interested to see the aftermath of it next week. Yea I know its not going to be an overnight turn,remember who youre talking to.

[KILLdozer]

I really,really,really didnt like the aftermath of Jericho and Ziggler...Everybody knew Jericho was leaving because of the reports about his time being done in WWE again...So this should have been Zigglers breakout moment and getting the torch passed to him,There is no other way this segment should have been done...Not to mention the crowd was nowhere near as hot as they should have been for Jericho's wwe career being done...Why didnt AJ come out and fire him? The hitting with the briefcase was just ridiculous,it made the segment fall flat on its ass and makes you think Jericho wont be leaving after all...The whole thing just looked like shit after that,like what was the point?

[Bob-O]

OPENING SEGMENT- good. "Master of the Brock-tagon" was genius.

I love Paul Heyman, I could listen to the man read me the phone book. However, and maybe I'm just not used to a heel being allowed to finish a rant uninterrupted, but I feel like this went on five minutes longer than it had to. But, I was also waiting for some music to hit... so, this might be the anticipation talking.

They have a normal match on PPV they have a Career vs. MITB Briefcase match on regular TV?

I'm sure the writing staff agrees with you. This whole thing was doomed from the get-go since it was no secret Jericho was leaving. The "can't win the Big One" angle really backed them into a corner with Jericho reverting to Y2J on his way out the door. Somebody clearly had a "pass the torch to Ziggler" idea, while somebody else had a "we can't bury Jericho" idea. I thought this was supposed to be a passing of the torch, but especially with the post-match beatdown on Raw, I don't feel like Dolph gained anything from this because it ended they way Dolph's angles always do. Dolph gets beat down.

RANDY ORTON vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO

I'm curious to know what you thought of the aftermath to this. The staredown between Sheamus and Orton. Orton seemingly not very happy Sheamus was even out there, while Sheamus did his new "Oooopsie..." schtick. I kind of like the direction they're taking with Sheamus, but thought it looked ridiculous as a reaction to Orton's murderous stare.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. BRODUS CLAY

Beyond the simple booking of this, what I loved about it is that THEY ACTUALLY DID IT! We RARELY see two "Guys on the Rise" face off. Ever. Fear of losing heat or whatever, I think WWE has forgotten that a good even feud is a great vehicle to use in getting BOTH undercard guys over, no matter who wins. REALLY looking forward to how this pans out.

HBK INTERVIEW- not bad, but just felt kind of unnecessary.

I felt the opposite. I thought this WAS bad, but necessary. I think this interview was the sole purpose for including Shawn in the angle. There really wasn't much for Hunter to say last night, such a loss for a guy like him, I love that they sold the turmoil, the hand on the head. He COULDN'T speak for himself, this loss is still sinking in along with Heyman's implications. Shawn doing the talking here sells the angle while keeping Triple H quiet. BUT, Shawn did a bad job. He wore that stupid Shawn Micheals face the whole time that had me thinking he was going to start laughing any second. I can only think of two times when I EVER took HBK seriously was when he "lost his smile" (I know, right!?) and his retirement speech. He's always got this stupid look on his face that lacks sincerity. May lightening strike me, but while Shawn was the right guy for this, Nash would have done a better job.

The segment did its job well, but it is extremely hard to enjoy if you don't like the route they seem to be taking Punk. I also hated Lawler not saying Punk is the best in the world. Punk has been the WWE Champion for nine months, and has won every match cleanly! Lawler seems entirely unreasonable in denying it.

Not really, Punk has been essentially bullying Lawler over this whole thing. The way they did it, Lawler wouldn't have been admitting anything, he would have been giving in to a bully, which has never been Lawler's thing.

You are right in that, I don't like the route they're taking with Punk. I like the direction, but not so much the road they're going to reach the destination. Cena's rant here made Punk look bad. I liked Punk's recovery, "Alright Jerry, before I was so rudely interrupted..." but Cena left with all his heat.

[Big Red Machine]

[quote="Bob-O"

RANDY ORTON vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO

I'm curious to know what you thought of the aftermath to this. The staredown between Sheamus and Orton. Orton seemingly not very happy Sheamus was even out there, while Sheamus did his new "Oooopsie..." schtick. I kind of like the direction they're taking with Sheamus, but thought it looked ridiculous as a reaction to Orton's murderous stare.

[/quote]
I guess must have missed Orton staring at him. All I saw was Sheamus almost-interference in the match and that letting Orton win.