BRM Reviews the 9/2/2013 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- Dragon, Orton, and Hunter were all great. Hunter says Draogn should be unhappy with Big Show because Show has an ironclad contract but hasn’t been helping him. The past few weeks they have been making it seem like Hunter can void this contract if he wants, so I hope they have a good explanation for this.

HUNTER & ORTON & CODY BACKSTAGE- decent, though I don’t like the “If Cody loses he’ll be fired stip.”

THE MIZ vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 4/10
The only good thing about this feud is that it allows Summer Rae to show how awesome she is.

DRAGON & BOOKER T BACKSTAGE- great. Booker was absolutely perfect here.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. RYBACK-no rating, good segment
Ambrose jumped Ziggler from behind before the match. Ziggler fought valiantly, but Ryback still beat him.

LOS MATADORES COMMERCIAL- when I heard the “Ole!” chants I thought that maybe all of those rumors about WWE signing El Generico might prove to be true, but apparently not, as these are just the Colons under Aldo Montoya masks.

STEPH & BIG SHOW PROMO- Yeah… their timing is off here. Big Show debuted in 1995. Steph would have turned twelve in 1988.
And Big Show is broke? Really? He is a WWE main eventer! How much money could have possibly lost and still not have a weekly WWE pay check make up for it? Content aside, Steph’s delivery was pretty good, though, and the “breach of contract” thing works pretty well as far as the iron-clad contract goes.

THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. 3MB (w/Drew McIntyre)- 3/10
Lawler warns the WWE Universe that if they receive an e-mail telling them that they will receive two free tickets to see 3MB, don’t open it... because if they do, they will actually get two tickets to see 3MB.
TRIPLE H & PAUL HEYMAN BACKSTAGE- Hunter is a heel to Heyman, too. Interesting.

WYATT FAMILY PROMO- awesome.

CODY’S CAREER IS ON THE LINE: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton- 7.25/10
Wow. Cody lost. I assume this has been done allow Cody and his wife to go on a honeymoon. It also allows Sandow to cash in MITB without Cody screwing with him. It will be interesting to see how they bring him back.

CM PUNK PROMO- awesome

DRAGON & BIG SHOW BACKSTAGE- Good… but since when are Dragon & Big Show friends? Dragon’s slight douchiness here even proves that they aren’t friends. I still don’t get why Dragon didn’t just say “don’t worry, dude. I get it. Let’s just wrestle.” It’s not like the McMahons ordered him to maim Dragon or something like that.

WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE DIVAS TITLE: Natalya vs. Naomi (w/Cameron) vs. Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella & Eva Marie)- I’ll be nice and rate this as a segment, because the match was pretty poor. As a segment, this was decent. AJ, who was going commentary, jumps them, causing the match to be thrown out. The three women in the match then team up to beat AJ down. I wasn’t thrilled with the three-on-one beatdown of a heel, but given AJ’s comments from last week, I can’t fault them.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. ROB VAN DAM (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 5.75/10

STEPH MAKES THE DIVAS TITLE MATCH AT NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS A FATAL 4 WAY MATCH- good

CODY RHODES PROMO ABOUT BEING FIRED- he says that the McMahons have always hated his family. He talks up Dustin’s days as “The Natural.” Yeah… that’s where you lost me, Cody.

DANIEL BRYAN vs. THE BIG SHOW- 6/10
I don’t get why Show is getting so f*cking emotional over having to face Dragon. It’s just wrestling match! Big Show came off like a total loser here.
I also didn’t like Orton showing up at the end. The focus of everything tonight has been about Big Show, so the show should have closed with him.

Overall, a much weaker episode of Raw than we have gotten recently, and this whole thing with Big Show has me a bit worried that quality of the writing might be going down from what is has been.

[Bob-O]

CODY’S CAREER IS ON THE LINE: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton- 7.25/10
Wow. Cody lost. I assume this has been done allow Cody and his wife to go on a honeymoon. It also allows Sandow to cash in MITB without Cody screwing with him. It will be interesting to see how they bring him back.

CODY RHODES PROMO ABOUT BEING FIRED- he says that the McMahons have always hated his family. He talks up Dustin’s days as “The Natural.” Yeah… that’s where you lost me, Cody.

Cody absolutely shined tonight. If you're taking off for a few weeks, that's exactly how you go out. I haven't given a shit about Cody Rhodes in two years, and now I'm SO PSYCHED for his return. Is he bringing Dusty with him? Could there be a Rhode's Family/McMahon Family side story? Since he's fired, does he burst through the crowd to save Daniel Bryan next week? Can't wait.

As for Dustin, and this is a stretch, but how old would Cody have been when Dustin was 'The Natural'? I'm not exactly sure, but he would have been a kid, a kid watching his big brother kicking ass and winning tag titles. His big brother. His role model. His hero! When Goldust debuted, that same little Cody HAD to be saying "What the effing fuck? What'd they do to my brother!?"

“breach of contract” thing works pretty well as far as the iron-clad contract goes.

At least they addressed it and resolved the plot hole, but I'm not sold. His "Iron Clad Contract", by Show's own definition, was un-breachable. "I've got an iron-clad contract! I can do whatever I want and there's nothing you can do about it." He took three months off "because he could"! But somehow, refusing to knock out Daniel Bryan would make it null and void? I'll give them credit for addressing it.

since when are Dragon & Big Show friends?

I don’t get why Show is getting so f*cking emotional over having to face Dragon.

Seriously! When and why did Big Show turn face!? And, not just "Badass Gonna Fight The Heels Now" face like Mark Henry, but big blubbery crying babyface like he was when John Cena didn't give a shit about him getting fired that fueled his heel turn to begin with! ESPECIALLY over freakin' Daniel Bryan who turned on him and took his World Title. DRAGON HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING FOR HIM!

I just don't like it. Show would be PERFECT for the Cooperate Enforcer Role. He, in his bitter heel "iron clad" form, would be an awesome compliment to The Shield in an enforcer role and give us a little variety in the Cooperate Punishment Match department. Not that I don't love me some Shield, but jeese... let's mix it up. Anyway, instead we get Crybaby Big Show again and it makes NO SENSE. His spot in the story I'm sure could have worked for a number of guys, and now that the rant is out of my system, I'm wondering if it was originally penned for Sheamus...

[Big Red Machine]

CODY RHODES PROMO ABOUT BEING FIRED- he says that the McMahons have always hated his family. He talks up Dustin’s days as “The Natural.” Yeah… that’s where you lost me, Cody.

Cody absolutely shined tonight. If you're taking off for a few weeks, that's exactly how you go out. I haven't given a s**t about Cody Rhodes in two years, and now I'm SO PSYCHED for his return. Is he bringing Dusty with him? Could there be a Rhode's Family/McMahon Family side story? Since he's fired, does he burst through the crowd to save Daniel Bryan next week? Can't wait.

As for Dustin, and this is a stretch, but how old would Cody have been when Dustin was 'The Natural'? I'm not exactly sure, but he would have been a kid, a kid watching his big brother kicking ass and winning tag titles. His big brother. His role model. His hero! When Goldust debuted, that same little Cody HAD to be saying "What the effing f**k? What'd they do to my brother!?"

I LOVE this! Genius, Bob-O!

and now that the rant is out of my system, I'm wondering if it was originally penned for Sheamus...

Could be.

[cero2k]

CODY’S CAREER IS ON THE LINE: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton- 7.25/10
Wow. Cody lost. I assume this has been done allow Cody and his wife to go on a honeymoon. It also allows Sandow to cash in MITB without Cody screwing with him. It will be interesting to see how they bring him back.

he could end up being a Vince guy