So here’s the skinny. Instead of trying to do a full-blown review of RAW every week, which takes more time than I actually have, I’ll just give you the takeaways. The takeaways will be five key points of the show that I thought were meaningful – in other words, segments that did not involve Heath Slater.
Takeaway #1: Other than Rock, they didn’t really use the “legends” very well.
Undertaker was thrown out there in a nothing segment with Kane right before the main event. Bret Hart did a ring introduction. Roddy Piper did a goofy sketch with R-Truth. The Rock was involved in a hot angle and I guess the D-X stuff counts as entertaining crap, but was there really a purpose to having all the legends there in the first place?
Takeaway #2: Whose f’n idea was it to make A.J. RAW GM?
I like A.J. as a character. But there are two major problems with having her be the RAW GM:
- It’s a completely unrealistic idea, even by the standards of professional wrestling, to hire a crazy person to be GM.
- A.J.’s strengths are her girl next door look and facial expressions. She’s a decent talker, but not good enough to be put in the position to carry segments.
This is somewhat disappointing in the sense that Trips is usually pretty good about booking his own angles. But this deal with Lesnar has been kinda meh ever since Brock broke his arm for about a week, mostly because HHH is the dirt worst at showing the slightest bit of vulnerability. Tonight’s angle was going along fine, with HHH goading Heyman into accepting the Summerslam match on Brock’s behalf…
Takeaway #4: Daniel Bryan vs. Charlie Sheen is a thing that might happen.
I cannot imagine that the whole Daniel Bryan/Charlie Sheen exchange was anything other than scripted, which makes the idea of them doing a feud completely bizarre. And the fact that Summerslam is in L.A. makes me think that some kind of angle is going to take place at that show, which is a complete waste of Bryan. He doesn’t need to taking the Miz’s spot as the requisite “guy to fight the stars”.
Takeaway #5: I’m not sold on the idea of C.M. Punk as a heel.
At least not yet, anyway. The challenge is still going to be figuring out what to do with Punk between now and Royal Rumble when he faces the Rock – which seems to be a given based on what happened tonight. The problem Punk has is that he’s so good as a heel that he almost inevitable gets cheered, and unless he’s facing Rocky he’s going to engender mixed reactions from the crowds anyway. Unless we see the return of the “straight edge superstar” and he’s able to morph into a completely unlikable character, this could end up being a bad idea.
In Conclusion: This was a disappointing show.
The Punk turn was well executed and I think some of the tertiary stuff (Ziggler/Jericho most notably) has a chance to build into something pretty awesome. The rest of the show was, by and large, forgettable. And considering that you won’t have Undertaker or Rock on RAW 1001, that doesn’t bode well.
So anyway, those are tonight’s takeaways. If you got things to say, hit me up at dajerseyboy at hotmail dot com, follow me on Twitter or leave a comment.
Otherwise, later…marks.
