Recap WWE RAW #1004 Post Summerslam
August 21, 2012 in Events, RAW, WWE
After the 25th Anniversary of Summerslam concluded Sunday night, it left several questions to be answered for the direction several story lines for the WWE…or not. Looking forward to Raw after big events usually leads us to exciting new plots for the WWE. However, instead we got a retread of the same plots and virtually did nothing to advance the plots or make me feel like I missed ordering Summerslam.
Raw started out with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman coming out and bragging about ending Triple H’s career, which remains to be seen. It literally was 10 minutes of them jabbering, and then threateningly thanking a referee. Something tells me we may get a rematch of this at Survivor Series. With Lesnar originally only available for so many Raws per his contract, is this the best use of him? Did they redo his contract? Then he gives us a Tout, saying he’s leaving the WWE? What? So he won’t be on tv again for months, and Heyman who is in contract limbo, will give us just enough time to forget about this before they shove it down our throats again for Survivor Series or the Royal Rumble.
Later this was followed up with recaps, recaps, recaps of the match between the two from Summerslam, and we even got lucky enough to get a recap of Lesnar and Heyman talking on the top of the show. Later, we got Shawn Michaels (VIA Satellite!) who basically eulogized Triple H’s career, giving even more credence to the rumors? Conjecture? Hearsay? Michael Cole speaking?
We got some decent filler plots in, with our Summerslam Raw match between Damien Sandow and Broadus Clay, surprisingly which Sandow came out and won. With his reward being smashed afterward by Clay. I know this has been covered elsewhere ad nauseam, but what is the deal with “Good Guys” in the WWE? If we ever are going to get a heel Cena (which we may as well face won’t be until he’s washed up and in TNA.) it won’t be with these guys acting like this.
We also had a six man tag match with the Prime Time Players (RIP AW!) and Cody “Triforce” Rhodes, taking on Kofi, R-Truth, and Sin Cara. The highlight of this match was the prematch WWE.com recap of R-Truth “dumping” Gatorade on Little Jimmy. Seriously. Watch it. Look for Kofi’s face. It’s awesome.
Ryback smashed two chumps before getting put into a camel clutch by Jinder freaking Mahal, Seriously, that’s who Ryback is going to feud with? And what’s the deal with keeping on making him look vulnerable. IF you are going to go all in on him, than just have him squash everyone. Seriously.
Daniel Bryan and the Miz had a tag team match with Kane and Zack Ryder. Convenient that Zack Ryder has forgotten that Kane was trying to kill him, but hey #RyderorRiot right? That being said, Daniel Bryan continues to be great. Can only hope that this feud with AJ keeps getting better and better. A little concerned though that this Charlie Sheen thing is going to keep going. Anger Management, me thinks is more than a hint that it will. I am a little excited though for the inevitable Daniel Bryan & Ashton Kutcher vs Kane & Charlie Sheen tag team match.
So AJ had some major screen time, involving herself in just about every major plot point, bringing back the return of Non-Goateed David Otunga, letting CM Punk pick the number one contender, putting Alberto Del Rio in a match with Randy Orton, and last but not least, set up a Contract versus Briefcase match between Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho, which was my favorite match of the night.
I was pretty pleased that they decided to put Ziggler/Jericho II on Raw, and with even higher stakes. It really validated my reasoning for not ordering Summerslam. Match was great, and Ziggler sold well, and pulled off a really solid victory. We will probably see Y2J again at some point, but he did his part to get The Show Off over, and hopefully go on a nice long title run. God knows that title needs it, I don’t know if I can handle one more Del Rio versus Sheamus match, even if Randy Orton is involved. As an aside, class move by Jericho posting this tweet.
And Raw ended with CM Punk berating Jerry Lawler, to get interrupted by John Cena, who really just tore up CM Punk on the mic. People complain about Cena a lot, and that his character is stale right now (rightfully so), but he definitely got it going for his verbal sparring with Punk. He came out said his piece to Punk, and then left him standing in the ring, with the only thing he was able to do was assault Jerry Lawler. Looks like he’s officially a heel, between the Phantom Goatee, and assaulting the bizarrely loved Lawler, he’s heading to the point of no return. It will be very interesting how this goes from here, but definitely as we get to Night of Champions, the Wrestlemania plans should become much more clear. As to whether we see Punk/Rock or Cena/Rock II.
Overall, Raw was a C. More continuations of the same plots that were setup already. Hopefully Smackdown is somewhat watchable this week….
Winners: Ziggler, Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Kane, AJ, Kaitlyn (#1 Contender) CM Punk and as much as it pains me John Cena.
Losers: HHH, Brock Lesnar, Shawn Micheals, Paul Heyman, Jerry Lawler, Eve, Ryback, Jinder Mahal, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus
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