BRM Reviews the 10/1/2012 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- Didn't care about Punk, but I have to congratulate WWE for the Heyman stuff. I didn't see it coming. Well done. Then it went downhill when Vickie and Dolph came out. AJ was okay, but appointing her a "coach" to help her "development as a General Manager" doesn't make sense. It seems to me that AJ needs help with her anger.
Then Dragon and Kane came out for no reason whatsoever than to have them right there so AJ can make the tag team main event (why couldn't she have just made the match without them coming out, wasting time and yelling).

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. The Colons (w/Rosa Mendes)- 4/10
Rey's gear hurt my eyes. JR called this match "outstanding" which made me do a spit take.

ANTONIO CEASRO vs. BRODUS CLAY (w/the Funkadactyls)- AMAZING SQUASH- The way they did the finish put Ceasro over HUGE!

AJ & KAITLYN SEGMENT- so the person that the WWE Board of Directors brings in to help AJ be a better GM is… nobody anyone has ever heard of before. What experience does this guy have as a WWE GM? Then there is this segment itself, which I hated. The angle is that AJ is mentally unbalanced. Not that she is douchebag.

ZACK RYDER vs. THE MIZ- 2/10
Nowhere near long enough, and The Miz doesn’t get anything from winning.

WORLD HEAYVWEIGHT TIEL DEBATE- HUGE, MONSTROUS F*CKING DUD! Big Show was absolutely right. This was an absolute waste of time and there is NO REASON FOR THIS TO HAVE HAPPENED AT ALL! Then to cap it off, the Big Show walks away from Sheamus. That doesn’t increase my desire to see this title match.

RYBACK vs. TENSAI- DUD!
Why the hell would you do this match when you just did it on Smackdown. The point they were trying to get over in that match was that Ryback could beat Tensai in just a few minutes. And he did that perfectly. Why would you do this match again? At best, it is a waste of time, and at worst something could go wrong… and what do you know? Something did.

DAMIEN SANDOW & CODY RHODES BACKSTAGE- okay.

AD FOR FOLEY’S BOOK- I love how they had this intense music playing while talking up a children’s book.

BETH PHOENIX vs. EVE TORRES- 1.75/10
Once again Beth jobs cleanly and looks weak.

WADE BARRETT & AJ BACKSTAGE- entirely pointless

SANTINO MARELLA vs. HEATH SLATER (w/Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal)- No rating. Horrible segment.
So how important has this new stable been? I already forgot that they existed. And now they can’t even get a win. Wouldn’t it have been better to have Slater win cleanly (or even with a distraction) and then have them beat him down? Then, for their first promo as a stable… all they do is all just say their f*cking catchphrases.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. SHEAMUS- 5.75/10
At least they made Sandow look strong by lasting a while. I really didn’t like the finish.

CM PUNK & JR SEGMENT- eh. Punk was great (more so at the end than at the beginning, though), but JR’s promo was bad, and here is why. JR said that right now, Punk isn’t the best in the world, but if Punk accepts Cena’s challenge and beats Cena at Hell in a Cell, Punk will be the best in the world. If Punk can only become the best in the world by beating Cena, that means that Cena, rather than Punk, is currently the best in the world… And you could make an argument that that is true. After all, we have never gotten a good, clean finish between these two in a singles match. The problem is that the Punk is the WWE Champion, and that means that the burden of proof is on Cena, not Punk. In this situation, for JR (and, as the babyface announcer, JR is supposed to represent the truth) believes that the burden of proof is on Punk rather than on Cena, then it makes the WWE Title worthless.
PUNK & RYBACK STUFF- eh.

ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. KOFI KINGSTON (w/R-Truth)- 1/10
I don’t think Del Rio got any offense in at all before locking in his finish. I did love Ricardo on commentary, though.

AJ & HER COACH BACKSTAGE- umm… okay. Seems like AJ will be fired soon.

TAG TEMA MATCH WITH AJ LEE AS THE SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan & Kane) vs. CM Punk & Dolph Ziggler (w/Paul Heyman & Vickie Guerrero)- 6.5/10
AJ is the guest ref? Crap. I had been looking forward to this match, but this has just killed my interest in it. Not good enough for a main event.

Overall, a horrible episode of Raw.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. During a clip of the Big Show hitting Orton with the WMD, JR says that Orton was hit by the “carcinogenic right hand” of the Big Show. So Big Show’s finish gives you cancer?

[cero2k]

gonna be honest, i think you're just hating on this show for a reason, Cara/Rey vs Colons was good. Sheamus vs Sandow was great! Best Sandow match since his debut. Main event was pretty decent too.

[Big Red Machine]

gonna be honest, i think you're just hating on this show for a reason, Cara/Rey vs Colons was good. Sheamus vs Sandow was great! Best Sandow match since his debut. Main event was pretty decent too.

The show just didn't appeal to me. I am sick and tired of four-minute matches with guys who should be at least upper-midcarders. This is a three hour show. There is no excuse for Del Rio vs. Kofi with a clean finish going any less than eight minutes.

Rather than making their matches longer, WWE is just using this extra time to fill the show with pointless three minute matches. Why did Tensai vs. Ryback need to happen again? Why did Miz vs. Ryder need to happen?

What they did with Sheamus vs. Sandow is what they should be doing with this extra time.

[kiel297]

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. During a clip of the Big Show hitting Orton with the WMD, JR says that Orton was hit by the “carcinogenic right hand” of the Big Show. So Big Show’s finish gives you cancer?

It might not be the best word to use, but the metaphor here is that his right hand puts you down. You're just nitpicking with this one.

[Serujuunin]

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. During a clip of the Big Show hitting Orton with the WMD, JR says that Orton was hit by the “carcinogenic right hand” of the Big Show. So Big Show’s finish gives you cancer?

It might not be the best word to use, but the metaphor here is that his right hand puts you down. You're just nitpicking with this one.

To be fair, I didn't like it either. I mean, I get the point of what he said but I don't think the metaphor really worked for this one.

Also, I was huge into the Cesaro/Clay finish too. It actually made me go "O_O WOW!"

[Big Red Machine]

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. During a clip of the Big Show hitting Orton with the WMD, JR says that Orton was hit by the “carcinogenic right hand” of the Big Show. So Big Show’s finish gives you cancer?

It might not be the best word to use, but the metaphor here is that his right hand puts you down. You're just nitpicking with this one.

Cancer kills you slowly. Big Show knocks you out quickly. It was nowhere near the right word to use, as the metaphor doesn't even work.

[badnewzxl]

CM PUNK & JR SEGMENT- eh. Punk was great (more so at the end than at the beginning, though), but JR’s promo was bad, and here is why. JR said that right now, Punk isn’t the best in the world, but if Punk accepts Cena’s challenge and beats Cena at Hell in a Cell, Punk will be the best in the world. If Punk can only become the best in the world by beating Cena, that means that Cena, rather than Punk, is currently the best in the world… And you could make an argument that that is true. After all, we have never gotten a good, clean finish between these two in a singles match. The problem is that the Punk is the WWE Champion, and that means that the burden of proof is on Cena, not Punk. In this situation, for JR (and, as the babyface announcer, JR is supposed to represent the truth) believes that the burden of proof is on Punk rather than on Cena, then it makes the WWE Title worthless.
PUNK & RYBACK STUFF- eh.

This is what's been bugging me about Punk's heel turn; the reaction from supposedly neutral legends. Lawler, Foley, and JR are all talking about how Punk needs to PROVE himself but the guy's been the champ for over 300 days! What does he have to do? Beat Cena? Why is Cena the best in the world? BC he sells the most merchandise? He lost at Mania, got the crap kicked out of him by Lesnar, lost to Johnny Ace, and needed about three of four other guys to beat the Big Show; how in the fuck does that make him the best? I just hated it when they act like being the champ DOESN'T make you the best in the world bc they frequently remind us (esp when the champ is a face) that being the champ PROVES you are the best in the world. Why not just say "Punk, you ARE the best in the world, but you can't beat Cena." Make PUNK doubt his spot as the best in the world. Others questioning it just makes them look hypocritical....

[Serujuunin]

This is what's been bugging me about Punk's heel turn; the reaction from supposedly neutral legends. Lawler, Foley, and JR are all talking about how Punk needs to PROVE himself but the guy's been the champ for over 300 days! What does he have to do? Beat Cena? Why is Cena the best in the world? BC he sells the most merchandise? He lost at Mania, got the crap kicked out of him by Lesnar, lost to Johnny Ace, and needed about three of four other guys to beat the Big Show; how in the f**k does that make him the best? I just hated it when they act like being the champ DOESN'T make you the best in the world bc they frequently remind us (esp when the champ is a face) that being the champ PROVES you are the best in the world. Why not just say "Punk, you ARE the best in the world, but you can't beat Cena." Make PUNK doubt his spot as the best in the world. Others questioning it just makes them look hypocritical....

This is fantastic. If they did it this way I would probably care more about this angle, because right now, I can't even pretend to care.