5/14/2012 RAW REVIEW: A BAD SANDWICH

May 14, 2012. Last Monday Night Raw before the Over The Limit PPV, which has the potential match of the year on the card with CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan. #ItsClobberinTime vs #YesYesYes. With all that, WWE produces this awful excuse of an entertainment show. That’s what WWE is right? An Entertainment company, as Paul Heyman so eloquently put it at the start of the show while talking to Triple H. You know who’s winning in all this? TNA. TNA is getting rave reviews with they’re recent PPV outing. WWE answers with again, one of the worst Raws I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoyed the Triple H and Paul Heyman segment at the start of the show. WWE had a strong foundation to build a great show. And then…

They team CM Punk with Santino to face Daniel Bryan and Cody. For? My hatred for Santino aside, the match itself wasn’t bad at all. Then? Alicia Fox vs Beth Phoenix. My attraction for Alicia Fox aside…yes, Alicia Fox is a fine specimen of a woman indeed…this match was what it was supposed to be. I actually think Beth and Alicia put on a good show for the time limit they had, but the crowd has been fed so much bad diva matches one after another, that even if they get a good showing, they give it no reaction. After the match, Layla ran to ring and gave Beth a face plant, and no reaction from the crowd what so ever. Layla, another fine woman in her own right, is nothing to the fans as far as talent goes. I am hoping that this leads to a Beth vs Kharma feud. That would bring credibility back to the diva division of the WWE.

Let’s go to the part of the show that was a complete joke. Big Show vs Kane. This match, first of all, was way too long. It was brutal. Adding to the fact that Johnny Ace was out there because Big Show had to apologize or be “fired.” So what happens? During the match, which was going completely bad already, Johnny Ace gets on the mic and tells Big Show to apologize, and that leads to one of the worse choke slams in professional wrestling history. After the match, WWE decides to make Big Show look like a lap dog. Seeing a 7 foot tall big bald man on his knees crying like diva breaking a nail was a joke. One good thing it did do was make Johnny Ace a bigger heel. What it did for Big Show? Nothing positive, I’ll say that much.

After that fiasco, the booker decided to bring out Brodus Clay. (Insert face palm here) Brodus Clay and Lord Tensai need to get together and thank God for still being hired in this business. Naomi and Cameron, never going to complain about them on my TV…precious they are. All that aside, they have R Truth and Kofi going against Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler at Over The Limit. I see the potential. I don’t get it as far as storyline wise, but the match itself has potential. I can’t wait for credibility to come back to the tag team scene in the WWE. I recently got the new Edge DVD, which is awesome by the way, and on that DVD there’s a match with Edge and Christian vs Too Cool vs T & A vs the Hardy Boyz for the tag team championship. In today’s WWE, that would considered a cluster----waiting to happen. Those 8 wrestlers managed to put in a great match. The ring psychology in that match was phenomenal. For the love of God WWE, bring the psychology back to these tag matches!!

Then you came to a highlight of the show, Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho. So much pressure on these two at this point because the crowd has sat through a crap fest for the most part. With all that said, Orton and Jericho put on a show for fans in attendance. Yes it did end in a DQ, but I feel it gave a great build for the World Title match at Over The Limit. Alberto Del Rio was missing in the equation tonight, but I can pretty much guarantee he’ll be involved on Smackdown one way or another.

Now we come to the end of the show. The showdown between John Cena and Johnny Ace. Going into this segment, I thought it was going to be a complete waste of time. I’ve never been glad to be so wrong. This segment delivered. Johnny Ace started off talking noise, then Cena came out to a surprisingly good pop. He did go into his usual Cena antics, but for some reason tonight, it worked. The crowd was into it. I mean, yes it was corny, but it worked. Then with the new stipulation on the match that if Johnny Ace loses, he gets fired, may have sold more buys for the PPV.

If I had to give Raw a grade, I’d give it a D+. I don’t need parts of the show to be great. I don’t need parts of the show where the crowd is alive and hot. I need this for the whole show. This is NBA Playoffs time just in case WWE forgot. TNA just delivered a great reviewed PPV just in case WWE forgot. And this is the show produced before Over The Limit? When people eat a sandwich, they eat more than the bread. They need the meat to be good as well. One bad tomato, one rotten lettuce, one bad piece of meat can ruin a whole sandwich.

Stay Saved,

Big Dusty
Daniel Richerson
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