With all I said in the "State of..." blog, I'm a little short on words. Randy Orton is the champ and I felt it was one month to soon. Miz didn't cash in, thankfully. Jericho's situation is still up in the air. The WWE's youth movement is in full swing. Hell in a Cell is the next crappy gimmick pay per view for you to fork over $40 bucks. The build better be worth it. I've said my peace with wrestling, time for Raw.
I loved how Raw opened. Sheamus out before Orton spoke was brilliant. He steals the spotlight and put an emphasis on him. My favorite part is the WWE title is down to one on one. Again, simple is better. A one on one Hell in a Cell match to settle it all is good with me. The only thing I will complain about is the show will have 2 or 3 HIAC matches. The show should only have one. Two men deserve to have their feud end in the Cell and that's Kane and Taker. Orton and Sheamus isn't on their level as far as intensity and rivalry. Yes they fought a few times this year but the story between them doesn't compare. The Cell is to settle it once and for all and that's why Taker and Kane should be the only one. I understand you need one on Raw and on Smackdown. You waste the special feel when you throw two guys in it. Since the ppv is already 2 weeks away, the easy booking is to give Sheamus the rematch clause and that's fine. I like that because at least we acknowledge the rematch clause. I wanted a simple story and the WWE has that now.
The tag titles are on a new team so they can be shown on Raw again. Cole makes zero sense. He's a heel during Rhodes and Miz but roots for Orton and Cena. Cole make up your freaking mind and just be horrible. Oh you already are. Since I like Rhodes and Drew, I'm good with them having the belts. I hope they can help the tag division but it's not up to them. It's really up to the writers to keep showing them and not bury them like they did with the Dynasty.
I love how some wrestling sites had Jericho gone from the WWE after NOC. Even Jericho responded with a tweet, "Since I've apparently made my last appearance in the WWE, I guess I have nothing to do tomorrow. The websites have spoken! Whatever, I'm going to Calgary tomorrow so I'll let y'all hash it out." Apparently, Jericho isn't done. He is going to leave but not for good. (I won't spoil anything but next week will settle the debate.) Once again, Jericho proves me right. He's lost to Morrison twice in 3 weeks and helped get Morrison over with clean victories. The match was very good and did what was needed to push Morrison. I'm not sure how far this push goes for John. Orton, Cena, Sheamus and soon Miz are all headliners. Bryan has the U.S. so that's out. Edge is flying over to Friday night. Who is left for Morrison?
You don't know this but during the break between Miz walk down promo and Edge entrance, Cole gave Miz an oral exam under the table. Bryan's new entrance music was hilarious and rocks. Riley and Miz seem to make a good pair so I'm happy Riley is sticking around. Miz and Bryan seem ready to have one more match at HIAC. As I said, Edge is heading for Smackdown and I can't wait. I'm not sure why he came to Raw anyway. He is the most underutilized talent on Raw. Meanwhile the beat down between Miz and Riley got me wondering why a face didn't come to help and set something up with Riley. Bourne, Evan Bourne where are you? He would be perfect and was left off Raw again. Best thing about all this though, the U.S. title means something.
More Smackdown stars with LayCool come to help Raw. LayCool are annoying but very entertaining. The whole sharing the belt is something we haven't seen since the Spirit Squad. Melina is great and has helped the Raw division. The heels make the better champ and now on both shows, it's even better. I'm really hoping for the special live Smackdown on Sy-Fy, the Glamazon Beth Phoenix will be fully recovered from her knee injury. She's the best women's wrestler and has unfinished business with LayCool.
I'm on board with Truth and Dibiase having a small feud. Plus more Maryse is always good. Dibiase though has only had these mini feuds since Legacy. He's basically floated around on Raw and it's disappointing. What happened to the Million Dollar Belt? They could have had challenges for that or had Morrison tag with Melina to wrestle Dibiase and Maryse. There are ways to push Dibiase, instead he gets these 5 minute matches, that includes entrances, or one backstage segment a week. Once Miz is done with Bryan, put Dibiase in the U.S. title situation. I hope Maryse liked my note on the Titantron.
The added twist with a gauntlet match made zero sense. The CPU GM makes all the announcements and matches or so it seemed. Wade walks out changes the entire main event for the show and not one e-mail. Way to show off that power GM. I'm not saying I wanted to hear Cole, again. I thought it was head scratching that the GM would say nothing. The AA to Wendy was a good way to go to break. The bad thing is Cena beating Nexus by himself proves this group is going away. One wrestling who has a bright future is Gabriel. He shined with Cena. He and Evan or Bryan could turn some heads. The stipulation at HIAC solidifies the end of Nexus. Cena won't lose that kind of match and join them.
Raw was borderline good. The show had one thing going for it, focus. The focus had to be on HIAC because they have very little time to build a good card. Raw went simple with Orton Sheamus, Cena Barrett and Miz Bryan. I like that because they were all easy to set up and make sense. Jericho and Orton facing off next week was pure genius. The beauty of Jericho disrupting Orton's "passing of the torch" segment when Jericho re-debuted on Raw is reversed. Orton was the heel champ then and Jericho was our savior. To see a story being told from something that happened 3 years ago is wonderful. Most of the time, the WWE forgets what happened two weeks ago so that was a nice surprise. The rest of the wrestling week should set up more for HIAC. We know Taker Kane inside the Cell. I'm not sure what else we will get on Smackdown. I hope not another Kofi Ziggler match. If you haven't yet, make sure you check out my "State of the Wrestling World" blog to see how wrestling can be saved. I'm taking the rest of the week off from wrestling and will be back for another Raw blog next week.
J Call
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