wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: The Best of Raw 2009 (Disc Three)
August 30, 2010 | Posted by
8
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
Your Grade
Loading...
| The Best of Raw 2009 by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 Examiner.com I’m not sure if anyone really wants to read this. There hasn’t been any indication of interest. If you did want it posted, someone might have mentioned it. But, oh well… To explain, I was reviewing this on my computer along with the other discs in the set, and I had to do a quickie edit on a short film, so I took it out of the drive, put it in an unmarked case and promptly mixed it up with all the others. Took me a while to find it again. Great, it’s the Kool-Aid Man vs. the Fruit-of-the-Loom Grape. Winner gets a hot tub. Not much happens. Lots of clubbery and power moves. Duh. Henry catches Big Show and slams him to win the hot tub so he can go back in time and invent the song “Let’s Get it Started.” (3:20). 1/2* Yeah, so early on it looks like gloating about the injury was probably a bad move on Orton’s part. Batista spears the crap out of him and tosses him over the announce table. Back in, Orton goes for the Ortonlock but gets belly-to-bellied. He tries to take off, but John Cena cuts him off and tosses him back in. SPINEBUSTER! DEMONBOMB! ONE, TWO, THREE! (5:00). He dead. ** The entrances and feeling-out period takes up the per-commercial bit, so we return to HHH playing face-in-peril with Big Show bearhugging the crap out of him. Jericho tags in to deliver more punishment but misses a splash against the ropes. Shawn tags in and unloads only to get mowed down by Show. For obvious reasons, Shawn makes the better face-in-peril. Jericho puts him in the Walls of Jericho. ASK HIM! ASK HIM! His fip time is relatively short, though, as Hunter tags in not long after and destroys both guys. DX tries to suplex him, but he reverses and suplexes both guys. They team up to shove him into the post, however, taking him out. That sets up Jericho alone in a two-on-one. He tries to run, but the Pittsburg Steelers block his path. Back to the ring for Jericho. He misses a swing at Hunter and eats Sweet Chin Music at 15:35. Wow, that finishing sequence does not feel at all played out after only three matches on this disc. **1/2 If John Cena loses, he’s off Raw. I don’t foresee the latter happening, but Cole and Lawler are already reminiscing. Chain wrestling early with Cena trying to get himself over as the desperate caged animal. Doesn’t quite work. Hunter goes for the Pedigree early but gets tossed. He squirms out of the STF, though. Hunter hits the Pedigree, but he can’t cover immediately. ONE, TWO, TH-Cena gets his foot on the ropes. Hunter with the Sharpshhhooter! Cena powers to the ropes and comes back with the Usual. Five-Knuckle Shuffle, but Hunter hits the high knee. PEDIGREE! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Wow. I’ve seen that move kill people and eat their souls as they try to escape. He goes for another one, but Cena counters to the Attitude Adjustment. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! The Civilian Slice misses. Pedigree is countered to the AA, which is then countered to the Pedigree. That finally gets the pin, and John Cena was never seen on Raw again. ::cough:: (14:09 shown). Actually, Cena earned his way back onto Raw by winning the WWE Title from Randy Orton on PPV a few days later. The match was actually pretty good, although I didn’t really feel the stipulations meant much. I know Cena summoned all his strength to kick out of the Pedigree and all, but kicking out of finishers happens in every big match these days, so it’s kind of expected. *** Kofi is high energy early on, dropkicking Jericho right in the mush. Jericho takes over and smacks him around. Jericho slaps on the side headlock. ASK HIM! ASK HIM! Kofi tosses him and hits a suicida. He calls this controlled frenzy, you know. Back in, Jericho slaps him around again. Jericho is SUCH a dick. I love it. Kofi comes back with the Boom Drop for two. Jericho rolls through a crossbody for two. CODEBREAKER! BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE, BITCH! ONE, TWO, THRE-foot on the ropes. Jericho thinks he’s won, but the ref tells him otherwise. TROUBLE IN PARADISE! ONE, TWO, THREE! Kofi gets the upset at 10:01. Kofi was on a role here, leading to a mini-feud with Legacy and a teased main event push. **1/2 This is the match where Santino wears every New York team’s jersey to the ring. Santino rolling away from the frogsplashes is pretty funny. Hornswaggle interferes, allowing Santino to roll up Chavo for the win at 3:54. Supercilious. 1/4* So, Cena vs. Undertaker for WrestleMania XXVII? One member from all three teams is in the ring at the same time. Big Show tries to stir up shit between HHH and Undertaker, but they quickly dispose of him. Great moment as Hunter spinebusters the Undertaker and Shawn demands a tag. Shawn and Undertaker go toe-to-toe for the first time since WrestleMania. That goes to a stalemate, so Jericho comes in and picks over the bones. He puts Shawn in the Walls of Jericho, but Taker grabs him by the throat. Cena blind tags himself in to the chagrin of the Undertaker. What a wise choice pissing off the Undertaker is. Everyone gets in for a chaotic brawl that sees the Undertaker wipe out Big Show with a flying clothesline. Shawn gets the hot tag but misses Cena with Sweet Chin Music. Show winds up eating SCM. Hunter clotheslines Undertaker over the top but turns around into the Attitude Adjustment at 7:06. I would have no problem with this on PPV. It had a ton of great story threads and virtually no lulls in action. After the match, Taker Tombstones Cena for his insolence. ***1/2 Punk hadn’t quite reached the pinnacle of his heelhood yet. That would come at the Royal Rumble. The fans sure as hell don’t like him, though. Funny moment as he tries a shoulderblock and bounces off and then sells the shoulder! People don’t like a self-righteous loudmouth, but they really don’t like a wuss. We take a break and come back to Cena in triangle headscissors. Cena powers up and drops him back. Punk stays on top with TRAPPED ELBOWS! Cena comes back with the Usual. Punk slips out of the Attitude Adjustment and goes for the Go2Sleep, but Cena grabs his knee and puts him in the STF. Punk… just makes… the ropes. ROUNDHOUSE KICK! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Cena goes up and hits the CIVILIAN SLICE! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Cena avoids a Stinger Splash and takes him up top for the SUPER ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT! ONE, TWO, THREE! (9:36). Punk fared much better here than he did in their later match. He really found his niche as less of a wrestler and more of a personality (which, btw, is *exactly* what I said would happen when he debuted on ECW four years ago). **3/4 Dennis Miller put this together, which explains why we’ve seen it before a thousand times. You know that Pelosi/Planet of the Apes joke he told? I remember him doing that same joke only with Gingrich and the 1994 Republican revolution… fifteen years ago. Orton stomps Cena down in the corner. To the floor, Orton smacks him around a bit and throws him back in for two. Rather lopsided at this point. Striker and Cole run through the year’s awards. Cena gets in a bulldog and a schoolboy for two. YOU CAN’T SEE ME leads to the two trading finisher attempts. Cena catches him with the Attitude Adjustment! ONE, TWO, THRE-hand on the ropes. Cole really sold that false finish well on commentary. Orton yanks Cena to the apron and gives him the apron-assisted DDT on the floor. SICK! Back in, it only gets two. That sets up the punt attempt, but Cena backs away and hits the AA for the win at 9:01. Just a “send the kids home happy at the end of the year” kind of match. It’s clear here, though, that Orton was the more dynamic of the two wrestlers. That’s why Cena has gotten so stale. Orton does things. Cena has things done to him. **1/2
|
The 411:Â 2009 seemed to be the start of a two-year transition period where guys like Shawn Michaels and Triple H are taking lesser roles while Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and CM Punk have seen expanded roles. It hasn't seemed to hurt them much in the short-run, and it's really the only thing they can do in the long run. The matches are mostly middling-to-good, but that works in the context of a year-long retrospective. They did a fine job of cutting out the crap and hitting all the bullet points. Thumbs up. |
 |
| Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]  legend |
More Trending Stories
- Jerry Seinfeld Says Money From Saturday Night’s Main Event Helped Seinfeld Get Made
- John Laurinaitis Files Motion Aligning With Vince McMahon in Sex Trafficking Lawsuit, McMahon’s Lawyer Responds
- Two Top Superstars Reportedly in France Ahead of WWE Backlash France (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
- Hulk Hogan Says He Got A Voice Message From Roddy Piper Two Days After His Death
