411’s Instant Analysis 01.03.11: Monday Night Raw

WILLKOMMEN!

Welcome kids to a little fun we’re going to have here at 411. The Instant Analysis column is the companion piece to 411 Live Pay-Per-View Coverage and features immediate reaction to wrestling pay-per-views. The focus in Instant Analysis is on first thoughts and initial reactions instead of play-by-play, with the goal of providing you with instant access to writers’ thoughts on the show. We have decided to give these a try for some of the TV shows, so lets see how things work out . . .

SEGMENT ONE
MIKE the MIZ (c) w/ ALEX the RILEY vs. JOHN MORRISON in a FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH for the WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
Match Result: Miz wins. Cleanly.
Match Length: Roughly seventeen minutes.
Match Analysis: Michael Cole on commentary makes a big deal about the fact that we’re getting our WWE Title match as the first Raw bout of 2011. Miz and Riley ambush Morrison in the aisle during his entrance, setting off a brawl that culminates when the challenger jumps off of a big set piece with a dive on to both men. After that, Morrison takes the champ back to the ring where they do some fairly standard wrestling until Johnny looks for his big knee and A-Ry returns to the match by pulling Morrison out of the ring on the pin attempt. Morrison is infuriated, so he goes after Riley, sets him up on the guardrail and busts out a LEAPING KNEE STRIKE to the Varsity Villain’s face. They sell it like Riley should be out of commission for the rest of the match and head to a commercial. Coming back from the break, the wrestlers are on the outside fighting around a piece of guardrail that has been set up like a ramp. Ultimately, JoMo takes SICK back body drop on to the metal. Back on the inside, the wrestlers trade nearfalls on basic offense and Morrison even hits Starship Pain but Mike the Miz manages to kick right out at a two count. The knee misses, Miz cradles, and he gets a two count. Morrison responds with a version of the Pele kick that knocks Miz out of the ring, where he’s placed on a table. Starship Pain to the floor from the table . . . MISSES! But Morrison KICKS OUT! Miz immediately gives his opponent the Stroke on the arena floor, and there’s no kicking out of that one.

I really liked this match. From an in-ring action standpoint, it was the sort of thing that we almost never get to see on Monday Night Raw anymore, which I actually consider a good thing because now, when something like this happens, it feels special. There were a ton of eye popping spots here from both men that are going to get replayed in highlight reels for years to come, and, though there wasn’t much of a story in between them, they were spaced out well and were enough to keep my interest throughout the life of the match. I also really liked the booking, as Miz has been somewhat of a Honky Tonk Man-esque champion up to this point, and a win over a guy like Morrison in a really strong match is exactly the sort of thing that he needed to establish his credibility so that fans can still think he’s a worthy champion even when he winds up cheating to win against guys like Randy Orton, who are significantly higher on the pecking order than Morrison. Though not quite PPV main event quality, this match was f’ing great by free TV standards, and I think I’m about to get it the highest single segment rating that I’ve ever given in the history of this column.
Rating: 9.0

SEGMENT TWO
MELINA PEREZ, MARYSE OUELLET, & ALICIA FOX vs. NATTIE NEIDHART, BRIE BELLA, & EVE TORRES
Match Result: Eve pins Melina.
Match Length: A little under three minutes.
Match Analysis: Brie Bella, huh? I wonder who Gail Kim pissed off. There’s a switcheroo by the twins less than a minute into the match after Brie takes a bump to the outside. It doesn’t play into the story of the match at all, so I don’t know why they bothered doing it. Nattie and Alicia wind up in the ring and it looks like Neidhart is going to get the sharpshooter, but Melina interferes. Melina tags in, but, before she can hit one offensive maneuver, Nattie clotheslines her, Eve hits her with a neckbreaker, and she’s pinned. Well, that teaches you to make whiny, unprofessional tweets about your position in the company. The match was nothing special and the real newsworthy bit was Melina apparently being punished, but you need something relatively uneventful in order to to bring the crowd down from an awesome opening match like the one we just saw.
Rating: 6.0

SEGMENT THREE
SANTINO MARELLA & VLADIMIR KOZLOV w/ TAMINA vs. JIMMY & JAY USO
Match Result: Usos win. No, seriously.
Match Length: Roughly four minutes.
Match Analysis: It’s interesting that they went straight to this match on Raw instead of trying to do even a short undercard feud between the two teams over Santino’s relationship with Tamina first. The really interesting thing here was the commentary. It was very old school, with Michael Cole and Josh Matthews (subbing for Jerry Lawler, selling his injuries from last week) really putting over the in ring action, talking about how Kozlov is training Marella in sambo and about how every wrestlers’ performance over the next several weeks is important because they are essentially “auditioning” for slots in the Royal Rumble. They were doing a lot more to call wrestling as a sport than I’ve heard done on Raw in some time. The finish here was pretty badly botched, as one of the Usos attempted to low bridge Kozlov but he absolutely failed to get over the top rope, instead writhing on top of it for several uncomfortable seconds before essentially throwing himself out of the ring. Then, out of nowhere, one of the Usos pinned Santino with a Samoan drop. After the bell, Santino and Tamina laid out an Uso with a double Cobra. I was all set to slap another 6.0 “average” rating on this segment, but then we got Kozlov’s goof up and the bizarre angle after the bell, which seemed to immediately undo any good that was done by allowing Jimmy and Jay to win the match.
Rating: 4.0

SEGMENT FOUR
PUNK VS. WADE
Analysis: CM Punk is out for an interview. He’s for some reason drawn read dots on the palms of his taped up hands . . . perhaps he’s trying to piss off some Christians by suggesting that he’s got stigmata? Anyway, he gloats about putting Cena out of action last week and declares himself the new leader of Nexus before being interrupted by, of all people, Wade Barrett. Barrett takes credit for taking out Cena, blaming it on a match that they had on a Pennsylvania house show. He also claims that he, not Punk, is the leader of Nexus. Before they can go any further, Michael Cole’s ding goes off and the general manager books a three way steel cage match for tonight pitting Sheamus against Randy Orton and either CM Punk or Wade Barrett. Rather than fighting over the spot, Punk gives it up to Wade and offers some additional stipulations: If Barrett wins, he remains leader of Nexus and Punk will work for him. If Barrett loses, he’s out of the group and Punk takes over. I’m pretty sure that we can all see the finish of that match coming from a mile away right now. This segment seemed kind of dead. The crowd wasn’t really into it, and, though Barrett was as good as he always is, Punk had a serious lack of energy and felt like he was just going through the motions. Nothing particularly impressive here.
Rating: 6.5

SEGMENT FIVE
ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. R-TRUTH
Match Result: Del Rio via submission.
Match Length: Ten minutes.
Match Analysis: There’s no real explanation given as to why Del Rio is on Raw this week. He just is. He cuts a promo but gets interrupted by Truth, who apparently lost Eve somewhere along the line during his recovery from pneumonia. Killings says that he’s going to send Alberto “back to where he came from.” That’s an odd comment from an African American. Truth hits a scary dive in the opening minute of the match, landing with his abdomen right on Del Rio’s forehead. We head to a commercial after that. When we come back, Alberto takes over with pretty pedestrian offense until he misses a seated splash on the ropes and goes crashing down to the arena floor. He reenters the ring and Truth is right on top of him, but Del Rio avoids the axe kick and posts his opponent’s arm. From there, the rolling cross arm breaker is applied, and Truth taps out. I thought that it was unusual to see a match in this position on the card go for so long, and, honestly, it probably could’ve stood to be a little bit shorter. Though everything was competently performed, it got a little dull in the middle. Otherwise, it was a decent showcase for Del Rio.
Rating: 7.0

SEGMENT SIX
WADE BARRETT vs. SHEAMUS vs. RANDY ORTON in a STEEL CAGE MATCH for the NUMBER ONE CONTENDERSHIP to the WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
Match Result: Orton wins.
Match Length: About eighteen minutes.
Match Analysis: I have no clue why this is a steel cage match and I’m generally not a fan of throwing away stipulation matches for no reason, but the show has been so good up to this point that I’m willing to give it a pass. Also, they announce that the ONLY way to win this match is via escape, which even further telegraphs the finish that I’m expecting after the Punk/Barrett/Nexus promo. There were a lot of weird spots early on in this one, including a couple of instances where one wrestler was climbing, a second wrestler would cut him off by grabbing his leg, and then the third wrestler would assist the second wrestler in the cut off. Why wouldn’t the third guy just try to escape himself given that the other two wrestlers are tied up? Also unusual was a bit where Randy Orton attempted to escape through the cage door only to have his opponents recover before he could get out. Instead of going after them, Orton popped down on to all fours with his back to the still-open cage door, and the wrestlers had a staredown for a at least fifteen seconds. Why wouldn’t Orton just back out the door on his hands and knees in that situation? He easily could’ve done it in a shoot. Things livened up after a commercial break, with all of the competitors taking trips into the steel and a lot more varied offense than punch/kick/climb/punch/kick/climb. Orton and Sheamus did the exact same RKO attempt into a backbreaker reversal that was in their match last week. Sheamus also managed to block a HUGE top rope elbow from Barrett by getting his knees up, which lead into a pump kick attempt that was cut off by Orton. That lead into Randy hitting all of his trademark moves on both of his opponents. Eventually he was taken out of commission by Barrett, as was Sheamus. Then CM Punk came in for the predictable finish, blocking Wade from climbing out and ripping off his Nexus armband, setting up Orton’s RKO on Sheamus and his walking out the door. This was similar to the Del Rio/Killings match from earlier in the show in that everything they did was executed decently (with the exception of the weird spots in the early going) but nothing came off as particularly important or exciting. I’m also a bit disappointed to see Orton getting another title shot at the Royal Rumble, as I honestly would’ve been a lot more likely to buy the show to see the end to the Miz/Jerry Lawler program. However, for what this was, it was fine.
Rating: 7.0