The Tuesday Communique 07.16.13: On All Cylinders

Quick MITB Thoughts
– I haven’t seen the whole show yet, but the two ladder matches were really good and Cena v. Henry was a very strong match.
– In fact, I think the WHT ladder match may have been the best MITB match yet. It really was fantastic. Obviously the Philly crowd’s rowdiness helped a lot, but the guys worked their asses off and there were some really cool spots. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you get Cesaro standing on Jack Swagger’s shoulders and Dean Ambrose skinning the cat and trying to stand on a horizontal ladder to grab the belt.
– I absolutely loved this match and I hope they try to ride some of this momentum and give Cody a decent push out of it.
– Sandow with the briefcase is likely to be very interesting and hopefully quite entertaining. Even my wife said she’s looking forward to seeing what kind of antics he pulls while holding it.
– So glad they pulled the trigger on the Heyman turn on Punk. I was afraid they were going to do so much of a slow burn that they would burn it out instead of burning it up, but thankfully they went with a pretty swift Heyman betrayal, and it was DAMN well done, too. Spectacular betrayal, even if it was obvious as soon as Heyman started yelling at Axel.
– I did not see Orton’s win coming. Apparently over the last few days before the show there were some rumors and rumblings that it was going to happen, but I missed all of that. I was sure it would be Bryan, but I am supremely interested to find out what they do with Orton holding the briefcase and how they’re going to move forward with Bryan’s push. Great stuff that really gets me wanting more.
– This is the most excited I’ve been about the direction of this company in quite a while. Let’s see how they follow it up tonight with RAW…

WWE Monday Night RAW from Brooklyn, NY || TV Review

New GM Brad Maddox!
– Cena interrupts right away, so Maddox says that John Cena gets to choose his opponent for SummerSlam.
– Well here comes Orton and he’s walking WITH PURPOSE, but you know he ain’t cashing that in for a while.
– That said, I wouldn’t mind a renewal of the Orton/Cena feud, especially now that Orton’s so much better now than he was during the previous iterations.
– FANDANGO IS HERE! IT’S BREAKING DOWN IN BROOKLYN! ORTON VERSUS FANDANGO NOW!

– No idea why that was in all caps.

Randy Orton v. Fandango
– I wonder if they’re doing this match just because they know Fandango will be over with this crowd.
– Who were they chanting “Overrated” at? Probably Summer Rae. She’s odd looking and too skinny.
– And now a “Randy Savage” chant. Here we go… trying to be the post-WM crowd. Great.
– Shit, despite a bunch of asses trying to get themselves over, Orton was able to use the crowd’s energy to get them behind him and it ended up being pretty electric in there.
– Strong match to start off the show, with Fandango looking pretty good in a loss against a major star.

– Ziggler officially dumps AJ! Backstage and quite unceremoniously, too. I kinda like that, actually.

Mark Henry Speaks Live!
– Henry’s reaction to the crowd chanting that he tapped out was great. “Yeah, and he’ll tap out every one of you too.” Henry’s been good at choosing the right things to respond to when it comes to crowd reactions.
– He wants to be the guy Cena chooses for SummerSlam, but it appears that The Shield has other plans. This is random, but I guess really that’s been The Shield’s MO somewhat often.
– What’s whipping him with his jacket going to do, Rollins?

– Brad Maddox makes Jericho versus RVD tonight. Well okay then!

Non-title: Alberto Del Rio v. Dolph Ziggler
– When the heck is Ziggler going to learn to block that reverse superplex?
– MAN-SIZED BUMP from Ziggler! That was Shawn Michaels-esque craziness. Good lord, dude.
– Why did Del Rio expose his knee brace to go for a superkick? How does that make a kick with the bottom of his boot more effective?
– SWEET diving tornado DDT from Ziggler!
– German suplex counter to the Fameasser! THIS IS WRESTLING, FUCK YEAH!
– AJ rings the bell and distracts everybody… superkick to the head! That’s the finish!
– Big E FUCKING DESTROYS ZIGGLER! Good christ the man came out of nowhere.
– Fine wrestling angle to close a great pro wrestling match. I approve.

The Wyatt Family Kills R-Truth
– Man, Truth is looking like Ron Simmons.
– I don’t even have anything to say about this. It was just really great.
– This show is rocking so far.

The Real Americans v. The Usos
– Hey, tag teams!
– Shocking that the team that they’re pushing win the vote.
– I’m very glad they decided to put Swagger in a tag team. He’s good, but he’s not ready for the main event and the gimmick with Colter just screams mid-card.
– Good little tag match here, and the Uso counter to the deadlift gutwrench was nice.

Damien Sandow v. Christian
– Fuck, Christian! Enough with those bumps, man! Hell of a tumble he took from the top turnbuckle to the floor.
– Christian with the flash pin! Sandow loses! The tradition of Misters MITB losing continues!
– Not a problem, though. Cody STORMS the ring and goes right for Sandow — that’s what I was waiting for. So far the MITB followup on RAW has been stellar.

It’s Clobberin’ Time!
– I don’t think words are needed. This segment was perfect.

– Took a while for Triple H and Stephanie to show up. I was really hoping they would take a night off.

Cena Chooses His SummerSlam Opponent!
– Brooklyn Brawler sighting!
– Unsurprisingly, Cena says that he wants the WWE Universe to choose. It’s quite clear that Daniel Bryan is the choice. Let’s see how they get there.
– Cena goes down the line and everyone pretty much gets a mixed reaction, except for Sheamus, who the crowd quite openly boos.
– Crowd still wants Bryan, and this is just fantastic. Thank you for not being douches, Brooklyn.
– Cena picks Bryan! Crowd erupts! This is certainly not the way I expected that they would get to this match, but I have absolutely zero qualms with the way they did it. Simple segment, effective and I look forward to seeing how they build for the match proper over the next few weeks.

Overall RAW Thoughts: Stellar. Easily the best RAW of the 3 hour era.

– Seems that there’s been somebody on Reddit leaking WWE PPV results since Elimination Chamber, going 38-for-38 in match results. He claims that he is not an employee of WWE but has an inside source, and hopes that his efforts will help WWE crack down on people leaking results. By doing what, getting his friend fired?

– Sadly, Stacy Keibler and George Clooney have relocated themselves to splitsville. I really thought those kids were going to make it, too.

– Randy Orton and his wife are officially divorced. Well this is a fun week for couples, eh?

– According to Maria Kanellis, the Bella Twins politicked to keep her out of WWE somehow. Yeah, it’s a slow news week. Not my fault.

– I can’t believe we’re going to have to wait for WrestleMania for them to finish the McMahon storyline. Okay, no, I can.

– Man, Taryn Terrell’s leg is messed up after her ladder match with Gail Kim from Impact last week. I’m way behind on TNA but I spent Sunday evening catching up on everything on Youtube. That match was good from the 3 and a half minute clip they had up there. Gail Kim is easily one of the best North American female wrestlers of all time and Taryn is absolutely fearless. She has a lot of work to do to become a truly good wrestler, but if she keeps it up I fully expect her to develop into something special. I like her a lot.

– Matt Taven is in the ROH title tournament? Really? I like him, but the gimmick with the House of Truth is bombing miserably. Nobody cares about him or Truth Martini, only the two chicks that come out with them. Taven is the TV champ, but he hasn’t actually had a feud yet and he’s a complete afterthought within the group. Why they think that’ll get the guy over I do not know.

– I really don’t care about the whole Warrior/2K Sports/WWE thing. Sorry.

– A story came out about Batista being in talks with Triple H about a short-term return, which Big Dave quickly took to Twitter to completely deny. Generally that means there really have been talks.

Southside Wrestling

– Nicholas A. Marsico