(courtesy of WWE.com)
Last night was the most enjoyable of the new three hour
format. It might be because I am getting used to it being three hours. It could
also be that they had more wrestling on the show. Then the end of the show
happened, and it came off as a teen drama like Dawson’s Creek or One Tree Hill.
Maybe that is because AJ Lee skipping to the ring looks more like a cast member
for Pretty Little Liars than the GM of a WWE brand.
I’m a fan of mixing things up. They usually start with a
twenty minute promo, but instead they have Show vs. Punk. This was a good match
to showcase how much of a threat that Big Show is. He manhandled the WWE
champion. Since this was all an angle with Daniel Bryan coming to get involved
to set up the tag match later, it was a good use of talent. Show got jobbed out
by RKO last week, so Punk does him a favor by taking a whipping this week.
When AJ skipped to the ring among the four was the first
time I really noticed how out of place she looks. She doesn’t act serious and
comes off like an airhead. As pointed out by Shane Helms on his twitter, it is
the reason she wasn’t at the contract signing later in the show, because her
action/look sticks out like a sore thumb among the brutes. Turning her into a
GM instead of a Vickie Guerrero or Eve, who fit the role better, might have a
negative impact on her run in the WWE.
JTG talked trash on twitter. The WWE creative team either
told him to do it to get over on the dirt sheets, or they are using it
afterwards to deal with the collateral damage. Either way JTG gets to taste the
stiffness that is Ryback. His new entrance music is horrible. I hate “Feed Me
More”. What a dumb catch phrase. Now we get to wait until somebody answers “Feed
Me More” with a knuckle sandwich. Get it. He squashes JTG and people now know
to watch their ass on twitter as Cole has a social media orgasm.
The Prime Time Players are already better without AW. It
sucks he is out of a job, but even a pro stand up like Daniel Tosh will tell
you that rape jokes are tough to pull off. Now AW is going to be a stand up.
Can’t wait for that. It’s been my career for five years now. Should be fun to
see him realize you can’t just ramble on stage.
Just attacking R-Truth, and doing their best Billy and Chuck
impersonation after, did more for the Prime time Players than months of AW
talking during their matches. I look forward to seeing where they go from here.
The R-Truth match was just to set this up, so Slater is not even an enhancement
talent now, he’s a placeholder talent.
Tensai vs. Sin Cara & the Divas match weren’t anything
special. I checked on the NFL preseason game during these. Tensai needs to
break from his worshipper and get with Vickie Guerrero. In fact having him, the
Prime Time Players, and one more talent would be a nice stable for Vickie. Plus
then Ziggler could break free for a solo run, or he could be the one and let
those guys be his muscle/stooges.
Rowdy Roddy Piper is hit or miss, never in between. Unfortunately
last night was a miss. He was trying to get Jericho over with the crowd as a
good guy. He ranted about stuff while also trying to get over his Mickey Rourke
match from years back. Also his homophobic pink shirt comment didn’t do much as
now everybody wears Pink shirts. Just as Pauly D or Robbie E. This segment was
a train wreck that went too long, but did lead into a great match.
Ziggler vs. Jericho vs. Miz was an entertaining three way
dance. They all worked their butts off and I liked that Ziggler was kept out of
most of the match. They told a good story with Jericho trying to show he can
win the big one. Miz can really sell. In the end having Ziggler steal the win
from Jericho as Vickie distracted the ref was simply amazing stuff. Jericho
took out Miz with the walls. Then Ziggler hits his finisher on Y2J. It puts
both young guys over, and plays up the “Jericho can’t cut the mustard”
storyline. Good stuff, and their match at Summer Slam should be a classic. Especially
with it being Jericho’s last match of 2012.
Another great storyline match was the tag between Punk/Cena
& Bryan/Show. They really put over the tension between Cena and Punk. They
also showed how over Bryan is with his “No” gimmick. That crowd was losing their
minds taunting him. I am sure Daniel Bryan goes to the bathroom and shits gold.
He protects Show by taking the beating, and the Summer Slam match for the WWE
title is set. I hope Bryan beats Kane as he is the glue holding this company
together this summer.
Another great moment is the build of Damien Sandow.
Christian is now relegated to the cheered face that always gets beat. The
announcers talk about his title runs only to prove how good the guy he loses to
is. Again I state, was being TNA champion that bad? Funky Brodus comes to the
ring and everybody thinks Sandow is going to lose, but swerve is on us. He
picks up the duke and for a third straight week rubs it in Clay’s face. Their
match at Summer Slam should be good, and Sandow is becoming a money drawing
heel because people will pay to watch him get beat up.
I didn’t touch the whole HBK, Lesnar, and HHH angle yet because
it was broken. Parts of it I liked, Parts of it I didn’t, and Parts of it were
straight from the CW. HBK is scared of Lesnar. His facials are great. He is
really helping sell that this man is a monster. This I liked.
HHH isn’t there because he flew commercial. The big wig of a
billion dollar company that owns jets with their logo on it didn’t fly on one?
Come on man. Why not just say he is stuck in traffic? Why not have him show up
only to be called away on business? Anything but a commercial flight is late.
This isn’t JTG on the phone, it’s HHH. This I didn’t like.
Paul Heyman was a salesman. He made sure people knew this
was going to be brutal. The crowd wasn’t into it because they were in hour 3.
So he tosses in a Texans being cowards line and gets them riled up. He is an
old pro at this. It brings out HBK and the two together have done more to sell
this match than anything Brock & HHH have done together. I really liked
this.
Then after it all ended HHH came down to save his little
buddy. That’s right the hall of famer, showstopper, and man who took on Taker
in a Hell in a Cell, needed HHH to come down to watch his back. One Lesnar =
One DX. It makes HBK look weak like he can’t fight his own fights. I get he is
retired, but is anyone coming down to stand up for Mick Foley, Stone Cold, or
the Rock if they are in a ring with one man? Probably not. This I didn’t like.
Here is where the teen drama kicks in. Heyman sets up HBK by
blocking his car with his car. Lesnar comes and drags HBK out of his car. The
cameraman gets knocked down and we lose visual but not audio. They have a nasty
sound brawl. Then commercial.
We come back from commercial and nobody knows where Lesnar
or HBK is. You mean everyone missed a nearly 300 pound man carrying a broken
down 240 pound man to the ring with a fat manager yelling behind him? Then HBK
gets roughed up by Brock as HHH comes to the ring. Heyman tries to control his
man, but oops, he breaks HBKs arm. Then HHH does the stupidest thing yet and
challenges Brock to fight him in a ring where his buddy is being attended to by
EMTs for a broken arm. Are you gonna fight on top of him? Genius!
It was overbooked drama that made the show feel like it was
clunky at the end. The end should have been the contract signing, but we waited
around, and everyone knew it was so HBK could get brutalized. Maybe do the
contract signing at 10PM, then do the WWE title tag match, and end the show
with Lesnar beating the crap out of HBK in the back. Hell, even have him break
HBKs arm in the back and then jump in a car driven by Heyman as HHH chases after
on foot. It would have flowed together, and it wouldn’t have insulted the WWE
title picture by having them go on mid-show.
This show was good. Some of it made me want to see Summer
Slam. Jericho vs. Ziggler will be good. I’m even looking forward to the tag
match and the Clay/Sandow match. Bryan looks to be hitting a great stride. The
WWE title match is intriguing because I really don’t know who is walking out
champ between Cena and Punk. It should be Punk, but it seems that his character
might be headed towards dropping the title and going full blown dark side.
The Summer Slam main event between HHH and Brock has lost
some steam. It will probably be entertaining, but in the end it still hasn’t
connected with me. This is more of a match built on name value than storyline
value.
When it’s all said and done Summer Slam will fall on how
well these two tell a story in the ring, which will rely on Heyman & HBK
playing heavy roles. I’m still betting
on a Stephanie smack to Heyman & that HBK will do the whole struggling with
tossing in the towel angle much like Rocky did in Rocky 4 when Drago was
murdering Apollo. If it goes like that then does that mean HBK vs. Brock at
Survivor Series to avenge his friend and get back his reputation after Lesnar
made him piss himself on RAW? I leave you with that to think about.
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