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411’s WWE RAW Report 08.22.11
Welcome to 411’s LIVE WWE Raw Report 08.22.11
Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: Alberto Del Rio
World Champion: Randy Orton
US Champion: Dolph Ziggler
IC Champion: Cody Rhodes
Unified Diva’s Champion: Kelly Kelly
WWE World Tag Team Champions: David Otunga and Michael McGuillicutty
WWE RAW rolls into Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (hey wasn’t some wrestler guy once billed from here?)
tonight a little bit more than a week removed from Summerslam. We still have tons of questions surrounding the controversial finish to the John Cena/CM Punk match at Summerslam as well as the usual questions about where the company is headed creatively heading into the fall quarter, so kick back, watch the show (or don’t, I won’t tell you how to live your life!) and keep refreshing the page for all the latest updates and analysis from yours truly after each commercial break. Let’s get RAW, as they say in the school of bad puns that aren’t funny. Oh and a quick plug, for any of you fans of the great TV show Breaking Bad, keep your eyes peeled on the Other/DVD Reviews sub-section of the Movies/TV section for weekly reviews from yours truly for the best show on TV today! I’ve got a review up for last week’s episode HERE!, and will have a review up for last night’s episode tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!
WWE RAW 8/22/11
August 22nd, 2011
Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Attendance: Unknown at this time
When we return from commercial break, John Morrison is announced as Del Rio’s opponent. Ross puts over the importance of Cena/Punk III, reminding us yet again what a competent play-by-play man sounds like. Del Rio targets Morrison’s throat in the early going with a chop and a quick kick before starting to go to work on Morrison’s arm, already setting up for his finisher perhaps. JoMo gets a near fall off a dropkick and then grinds Del Rio against the mat with a side headlock. JoMo sends Del Rio out to the floor and then tries for a picture perfect Asai moonsault, but Del Rio moves and JoMo lands on his feet like a cat before being shoved into the guard barrier as we take a commercial break. When we return Del Rio is working over JoMo back in the ring and delivers a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for a quick two count. Del Rio shoots into the corner but Morrison backdrops him over the top to the outside floor. Back in the ring Morrison meets him with a flurry of forearms and a Russian leg-sweep for a near fall of his own. Beautiful bridging German suplex from Del Rio, but JoMo kicks out again. JoMo blocks the armbar attempt with a cradle for a near fall and then delivers a sloppy tornado DDT for another one. Morrison snaps off a ‘rana for another hot near fall and the pace seems to have picked up a bit. JoMo nails a springboard kick and sets up for Starship Pain, but lands on his feet safely, seeing that Del Rio has moved. Del Rio launches him into the ring post however and then applies the flying armbar for the submission victory at 8:54 (shown). They seemed to not quite be on the same page as the match began, but they got over the opening butterflies pretty quickly and this turned into a damn fine little TV match before it ended. These are just the kind of upper-midcard clean wins that Del Rio needs, so no complaints here even if they probably could have put together something better with a little bit more time. **1/2
We get a video package before the match from Natalya and Beth Phoenix talking about how they don’t want to be like Kelly and Eve, but they aren’t going to tell us what they do want. Typical women as King puts it. Nikki lays in a few weak forearms into Eve but it’s not long before she’s out on the floor getting beaten up by Brie behind the ref’s back. Back in the ring Eve delivers a decent side suplex and for a moment I stare in awe at the TV screen with my ears perked up as I hear the first “We want puppies!” chant from a WWE crowd that I can remember in years. Eve does some of that “booty-poppin” as the kids call it and then delivers a sloppy reverse STO. Nikki trips her up when she tries for the moonsault for a near fall. Eve finishes her off with a strange neckbreaker at 2:34. I’ll give credit to Eve, she appears to be actively trying to mix new moves into her repertoire. The only problem is she’s delivering them rather sloppily, and someone might get hurt that way. Not much of a match obviously. Kelly drops a leg on one of the Bellas after the match as Natalya and Beth Phoenix look on from the stage. 3/4*
Vickie Guerrero makes her way out and introduces Swagger as her newest client. Riley gets the jobber non-entrance strangely enough. They lock up and Swagger quickly takes Riley down with a waistlock. Riley responds with a big spinebuster when suddenly Dolph Ziggler makes his way down to ringside to argue with Vickie. Swagger tries for the gut-wrench powerbomb on Riley but settles for a lariat instead. Ziggler accidentally elbows Vickie down and Swagger comes out to check on her. He shoves Ziggler and goes back into the ring, where he’s promptly rolled up by Riley and pinned clean at 2:03. Well if it isn’t Scott Keith’s favorite-ist finish in the whole wide world. Again, not much of a match here, just an angle. 1/4*
David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty © vs. Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne
With Beer Money recently dropping the TNA tag titles, that makes Otunga and McGillicutty our current longest-reigning champions in the WWE or TNA. That’s a frightening thought. McGillicutty seems to be wearing doo rags now in an attempt to look tough. It’s not working. Kofi and McGillicutty start us off with some basic feeling out stuff before Kofi hits a huge cross-body and sets up for the Boom Drop. McGillicutty bails and Kofi stupidly gives chase, getting jumped from behind in the process. Back in the ring Otunga body-slams Kofi for a two count. This crowd could not care less about Otunga and McGillicutty’s bland heel shtick here and it’s kind of sad to watch. Not even their love for Kofi can drag much of any heat out of them. Kofi snaps off a headscissors and tags out to Bourne and finally the crowd shows some life as Bourne hits a flurry of spinkicks and knee-strikes. Kofi nails Otunga with a kick on the side of the apron and Bourne hits the Air Bourne on Otunga to win the tag straps at 5:05. King tries to claim the fans are giving them a standing ovation, but they seem slightly bemused at best. The action here was solid enough but totally heatless. Atleast the tag straps are off of the heat vacuum that is Otunga and McGillicutty though. *1/2
John Cena vs. CM Punk
Alberto Del Rio and Johnny Ace both are at ringside for this match, so I expect we’ll get some sort of shenanigans. Cena does his usual pre-match attempt to throw his t-shirt into the crowd, but tonight the crowd decides to throw it back at him like they were the Hammerstein Ballroom. They go right into trading headlocks and legscissors in the early going and while obviously not as electric as Chicago last month, the crowd tonight is still extremely hot. They do a nice leapfrog/shoulder-block trading sequence and Cena looks for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, but Punk rolls him for a two count. Punk knees him in the corner and follows with the running bulldog, but gets knocked off the ring apron after being briefly distracted by Del Rio and we take a quick commercial break. When we return Punk is fighting out of a side headlock. Cena tries for the Attitude Adjustment out of the corner, but Punk blocks it and nails a springboard forearm for a two count. Punk tries for the GTS and Cena counters into the STF, but Punk wriggles out of it only to miss a spinkick and get taken down in a nasty crossface by Cena. Say, didn’t some guy from Edmonton used to use that move? Punk nails Cena with the GTS, but Cena kicks out at two! Kind of early for kicking out of finishers guys, isn’t it? Punk misses a top rope elbow drop, so Cena goes to the top and hits his top rope legdrop for another near fall. Punk blocks another AA attempt with brutal elbow strikes to Cena’s face before blasting him with a stiff knee to the face, but again Cena kicks out. These guys know each other quite well by now, and you can tell how comfrotable they’ve become together. Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment, but now it’s Punk’s turn to play the finisher kick out game. Punk hits a cross-body off the top rope, but Cena rolls right through and lifts Punk up, only to be cradled himself for another near fall before Punk wipes him out with a stiff boot to the face. Punk calls for the GTS when suddenly Kevin Nash comes out to the stage with a mic and calls out Punk’s name. He makes his way down to the ring and that distracts Punk long enough to turn around and walk right into the Attitude Adjustment from Cena, giving John the win at 10:56 (shown)! Obviously this wasn’t on par with their last two PPV matches, but they managed to fit a lot of really good stuff into the short time they did have and as a result the brisk pace made for another excellent encounter between these two. The finish hurts it slightly since it was rather predictable, but otherwise this was another damn fine match from these two men. ***1/4
Score: 7.0/10
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