After the Vengeance Pay Per View this past Sunday who are the champions? What happened at the PPV? What kind of results did it have on Raw? If you want the truth about the current WWE product then you’ve come to the right place.
Monday Night Raw Results 11/24/11
The show begins with Triple H coming out for a promo, because the show never starts with wrestling anymore. Triple H talks about how Kevin Nash attacked him at the Vengeance Pay Per View this past Sunday. He says Nash broke his heart. How sweet. He says he has a feeling Nash is in the building and wants him to come out. Instead he gets Interim GM John Laurinaitis. As Laurinaitis tries to talk Triple H tells him repeatedly to shut up. Triple H tells him that he is still COO and is still Laurinaitis’ boss. He orders him to re-sign Nash to a huge contract or he will go to his house and fight him. Triple H leaves on that note and heads up the ramp as he is suddenly attacked from behind by Nash with a sledgehammer. As Lauranaitis yells you’re not supposed to be here, Nash face plants a bunch of security guards. Eventually Triple H tries to walk to the back on his own but collapses.
Back from commercial break we see Triple H on a body board stretcher being put into an ambulance. Nash appears yet again, picks up the body board, and hits Triple H in the face with the sledgehammer. Laurinaitis leans over Triple H telling him over and over that he is sorry. As bored as I was watching this I really liked the production quality of this segment. I love how only one camera caught the action and was in the middle of the action as all of this was going down. The camera was very shaky and moved around as the security guards tried to remove Nash from the area. Very creative single camera production quality. Back from yet another commercial break and we have to watch that entire segment all over AGAIN. Seriously…the whole thing. Literally 3 minutes after it just happened. So WWE was able to successfully kill 26 minutes of television time with nothing but Triple H and Nash, with no wrestling may I add. So 1/4 of Raw is already terrible tonight. I just really don’t care that much about Nash or Triple H at this point. They are both way too old and steal way too much tv time away from younger and better talents. I’ve said before that Nash really brings a “B show” feel along with him. It’s like I’m watching some second rate wrestling promotion like WCW or TNA. Not a good vibe to give off. I’m okay with progressing this storyline because it has the chance to be entertaining, but not for 26 minutes. That’s an overbook. Plus the fact that we had to hear Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler talk about it over and over all night long. It’s way too much. The action wasn’t good enough to turn it into something like that. It’s nowhere near as good as other major disaster storylines from the past such as The New Age Outlaws pushing Mick Foley and Terry Funk off the ramp in a dumpster. Save the 26 minute segments for groundbreaking storylines like that one.
Randy Orton and Sheamus vs. Christian and Cody Rhodes- Finally some wrestling. But first I have to mention the brand new Twitter box that Raw unveiled tonight. Amazingly good idea and great way to really push social media. So there is a new box that pops up on the screen that says “Trending Now: Kevin Nash.” I could spend all day on this topic but I feel that following Twitter while watching any sport really enhances it. Follow all the wrestlers in the WWE and constantly watch their updates throughout the night while the show is going on. You’ll be glad you did. And I’m glad WWE is really acknowledging and pushing this concept. They took it one step further later in the night, but I’ll get to that soon. Back to the match. Orton dominates early hitting his body stomps. Back from commercial we see Christian working on Sheamus who hits the hot tag to Orton. Orton with his snap powerslam, inverted neckbreaker, and DDT off the ropes. He goes for the RKO but it’s interrupted by Rhodes. Rhodes and Christian work on Orton until another hot tag is made to Sheamus. Irish Curse Back Breaker from Sheamus. Then to duplicate the spot from earlier we see Sheamus go for the Celtic Cross, but Christian interferes. Sheamus regains against Christian and hits a Celtic Cross on him. Rhodes comes off the rope with his springboard kick. Christian then hits the Spear on Sheamus. Orton is up and hits the RKO on Christian taking him out. Rhodes goes for yet another springboard kick on Sheamus but he’s hit with the Brogue Kick. Unfortunately Rhodes’ timing was off and the spot was botched. It looked bad. And that becomes a reoccurring theme tonight as you’ll see when you read on. Sheamus picks up Rhodes and hits the Celtic Cross (because the Brogue Kick was messed up) for the win. Even though the finish was messed up I have to say that I liked this match. I liked how they used the same spot to break up the finishers of both faces. The finish was highly active and well thought out.
John Laurinaitis is in the back on the phone with Stephanie McMahon. She is upset that her husband, Triple H, was injured tonight. Laurinaitis says that he understands and got Stephanie’s message. Does that line perhaps have a different meaning towards the future? Could Stephanie be the one behind the conspiracy? Now that Alberto Del Rio accidentally blew the storyline that it was supposed to be Vince McMahon a few weeks ago when he said it during an interview, will they switch it up and make it Stephanie? How interesting would it be if she were trying to injure her own husband? Anyways, David Otunga is with Laurinaitis and tries to calm him down. John Cena comes in with a new black but colorful shirt. He tells Laurinaitis to follow Zack Ryder on Twitter, take two weeks, and then quit. Cena demands a match with The Miz and R-Truth. (If you missed the Vengeance PPV, Miz and R-Truth attacked Cena and costed him the WWE Championship.) Laurinaitis tells Cena that he will have a tag match with them tonight and then he will pick a partner for him.
They show a promo hyping Monday Night Raw next week with special guest hosts The Muppets!!! Kermit the Frog tells Miss Piggy that she’s no Kelly Kelly. Piggy says “if you want some come get some.” I can’t wait for that. So many possibilities on how The Muppets can interact with the WWE wrestlers. Can you imagine Miss Piggy hitting on Dolph Ziggler much to the dislike of Vickie Guerrero?
Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler w/ Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger- At the beginning of this match we see another Twitter graphic showing the comments Ziggler made on there regarding the United States Championship. I love it. And I’m really starting to like Dolph Ziggler. It took me awhile, but he’s really growing. I think it’s his appearances on Zack Ryder’s web show Z True Long Island Story. I love Ziggler’s fast talking promos. He has great mic skill and lots of charisma. Plus he’s really become believable and solid in the ring. So this match starts with some Santino Marella comedy spots. Santino goes for the Cobra and Ziggler runs away. Ziggler gets a little bit of offense before Santino hits a nice dropkick. Santino again goes for the Cobra but Swagger distracts him. This is officially the 3rd distraction spot of the night in only 2 matches. Now it’s old. Especially when it isn’t really needed. Why would The United States Champion need the help against little Santino? It makes no sense. So Ziggler picks up the win after the distraction. Then Mason Ryan hits the ring….again. He clears the ring. Boring. Zack Ryder needs pushed on Ryan. Zack Ryder needs to stay in the US Title picture not Ryan. And 5 minute matches need to go away.
The Bella Twins are in the back when Zack Ryder comes running up to them screaming. He is very excited that John Laurinaitis chose him to be John Cena’s partner tonight. Sweet….or is it?
WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio comes out to talk about John Cena. Or as he likes to call him “Yon Cena.” Del Rio says nobody can beat him…blah blah blah. CM Punk comes out. Punk says that he’s beaten him many times including 4 weeks ago on Raw. Punk says he never got his rematch against Del Rio. Laurinatis who makes his 76th appearance of the night comes out. He says Punk can face Del Rio for the title at the next PPV Survivor Series if Punk says that he respects Laurinaitis. Punk says it in a mocking Laurinaitis voice impression. He gets one more chance. Punk goes on a rant saying he respects Laurinaitis for being a bad wrestler back in the day, he respects him for making people brown nosers, and he respects how much power Laurinaitis has in the company with how little he actually did in the wrestling industry. Laurinaitis says he now needs another week to decide who Del Rio will face at Survivor Series. Punk attacks Del Rio. He goes for the Go To Sleep, but Ricardo saves him. Punk instead hits the GTS on Ricardo Rodriguez. But yet again the spot is botched. Ricardo falls too early and Punk hits him in the chest instead of the face. Botched spot #2 of the night. Ugh.
Natalya vs. Alicia Fox- Really? In my article last week I talked about how the WWE could be fixed. I named a list of wrestlers who should be used every week because they are great wrestlers. Both Natalya and Alicia Fox were on that list. And now magically after not really being used for months and months Alicia Fox appears on Raw? Coincidence? Or are people listening to me? So anyways, Natalya is great technically sound submission wrestler, and Alicia is a smooth athletic competitor with great charisma. Very happy to see this match. Divas’ Champion Beth Phoenix is on commentary. Alicia starts the match with some stiff forearms to Natalya’s face. Natty quickly takes out her knee from behind. After a hard clothesline she puts Fox in a knee lock. In the move of the night Alicia counters with great in ring psychology by crawling through the hole in Natalya’s legs and reversing the hold. Very well done. Natalya gets up and charges Alicia in the corner but Alicia leap frogs her and sunset flips her into a pin for the win. Yes that’s correct. Alicia Fox wins. I can’t believe it. On the negative side I don’t like how Natalya constantly jobs. She shouldn’t be buried like this.
John Morrison vs. Wade Barrett- Another Twitter box showing Barrett’s tweets. John Morrison actually has an entrance this week. He starts off strong flying around the ring before hitting a suicide dive to the outside. Barrett recovers and throws Morrison into the barricade. He hits a big boot back in the ring and then a second big boot that knocks Morrison back outside again. Eventually Morrison takes over and hits the sweet knee to the face he does. Morrison hits a springboard but is caught by Barrett. In botched spot #3 of the night Barrett drops Morrison. What is the problem tonight??? This is awful. Barrett picks Morrison back up and hits Wasteland for the win. Once again burying Morrison in preparation for his contract expiration. (I want to point out that at this point in the night Alicia Fox, Wade Barrett, and John Morrison are all trending worldwide on Twitter. Not the World Series and not Monday Night Football or anything to do with those sports.)
Speaking of Twitter, Michael Cole grabs the mic and says that Jim Ross has been tweeting bad about him all night. This is the thing I talked about earlier where I said the WWE took social media yet another step further. I do really like how Cole was groaning all night long about JR’s tweets and then finally acted upon it. However….JR was not tweeting about Cole. He was talking about him in a Raw live chat room. I checked JR’s Twitter and saw nothing. But still a good concept. So Michael Cole shows a bunch of pictures of JR with his face edited onto fat people. He was a cheerleader at one point. Cole challenges JR to The Michael Cole Challenge next week on Raw. He says that he won’t tell exactly what that is. He reveals that if JR wins he gets his commentary spot back because Michael Cole will quit the WWE. I’m sure it will be a big waste of time next week.
Zack Ryder is being interviewed in the back. He talks about how this is his first Raw main event…and then he is ambushed by The Miz and R-Truth. And that’s it for Ryder tonight. Seriously. Was this done to intentionally piss off the fans? Why else would they do this? I really want to turn off the tv at this point… #areyouseriousbro (Michael Cole and Awesome Truth are now trending worldwide on Twitter.)
Right after the attack their music hits. Miz and R-Truth come out and cut the music. No “You Suck” song tonight thank god. They brag about beating Triple H and CM Punk at the PPV and brag about taking out John Cena and Zack Ryder. Pointless promo.
The Miz and R-Truth vs. John Cena- Handicap match. No Ryder. Miz and R-Truth dominate the entire match. And I mean the entire match. Eventually they get themselves disqualified. They bring chairs into the ring when John Laurinaitis comes out for the #93rd time tonight. Laurinaitis makes them leave. He makes the Survivor Series main event John Cena and a partner of his choosing against The Miz and R-Truth. Cena says he needs a partner that will “bring it”. Which means he chooses The Rock. He yells The Rock ferociously and leaves a gigantic trail of spit on the mic that becomes a trending topic on Twitter. That’s how the show ends. Extremely weak main event. Perhaps the weakest of the entire year? Probably so.
My thoughts- The Rock wrestling at Survivor Series will be cool. I’m assuming this 2 on 2 match will eventually become a 4 on 4 or a 5 on 5 traditional Survivor Series style match. Nobody really wants to see a tag team match after we already saw Miz/Truth in a take match at Vengeance. Plus I’m a big fan of the traditional style matches. I hope to see at least 3 of them. And at least 1 of them needs to be random with no hype leading into it. Just throw 2 teams together like in the old days with no storylines involving them. Those matches were always the best. So about Raw….mixed reaction. Overall I think I hated it. I hated the beginning and I hated the end. I hated how Ryder was teased and then taken out of the main event. I hate how Natalya and Morrison are now jobbers. But I did like the Randy Orton tag team match, I loved the implementation of Twitter, and I loved the Alicia Fox push. But if Alicia Fox is a highlight then what does that say about the show??
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