Jim Ross was rehired and made Michael Cole tap in a main event tag match also featuring John Cena and Alberto Del Rio. Cena’s team won which meant he was allowed to choose the stips for his title match with Del Rio this Sunday at Vengeance. Following a beat-down of Del Rio he told him that they would square off in a Last Man Standing match for the WWE title.
Live from Mexico City, Mexico: John Laurinaitis came out to start the show. Before he spoke there was a recap of the last two weeks storyline. I’m not going through all that farce again but basically Hunter was fired, Laurinaitis was hired to temporarily replace him.
Laurinaitis announced himself as the executive vice president of talent relations and the interim general manager. He tricked the fans into thinking that Rey Mysterio was returning for some cheap heat and said that he had made a mistake in firing Jim Ross last week and announced his return to Raw.
JR came out and it’s like he had never left. Oh wait that’s because he hadn’t. It’s just another addition to the WWE’s umpteenth list of false firings.
JR slapped hands with the crowd and was called into the ring by Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis gave him a hug and apologised for being unprofessional. He then showed JR some footage of Cole trying to get the Oklahoma fans to start a “goodbye” chant in the commercial break following JR’s departure on last week’s broadcast. Cole laughed at the footage and Laurinaitis booked a main event pitting John Cena and JR against Alberto Del Rio and Michael Cole. Cue Cole who was no longer laughing.
Following this announcement JR and Cole taunted one another with Cole standing up on the announce desk in a fighting pose.
This was a funny visual to end the segment but I prefer announcers to eh announce the action instead of becoming a major part of it themselves. Funny concept, I know.
Six man tag graphic promoting next match-up between Randy Orton, John Morrison and Sheamus against Cody Rhodes, Mark Henry and Christian
Before the match took place two clashes were confirmed for Vengeance. Orton vs Rhodes, a match-up I would be excited about were it not for the fact that they’ve wrestled three lengthy bouts in the past month and a half and Mark Henry vs Big Show which is likely to send the crowd to sleep without the use of weapons. Henry might be showing more character in the ring but it takes a giant of a worker to carry The Big Show to a good match.
1) Six Man Tag: Mark Henry, Christian and Cody Rhodes defeated Randy Orton, Sheamus and John Morrison via pinfall (MATCH OF THE NIGHT)
Orton wanted Rhodes to start but Christian kicked off things for the heel team instead. Christian got in some quick punches on his opponent before whipping him across the ropes but Orton executed a perfect running leapfrog before planting Christian with a clothesline. He proceeded to pummel Christian with some fists in the corner before tagging in Sheamus which resulted in Christian making a desperate tag to Rhodes. Sheamus pasted Rhodes with a shoulder block and a barrage of fists and threw Rhodes against the ropes, putting his head down to set up a bodydrop. Rhodes scouted it however and kicked the Irishman in the face before planting Orton with a cheap shot in the corner. When he turned round however he was greeted with a bodydrop from a recovered Sheamus.
Rhodes managed to get in a tag to Henry as Orton ran round to give Rhodes some retribution. Orton then pummelled Rhodes up the ramp leaving us with a traditional tag team match.
Back from commercial Morrison took the beatdown from the heels. At one point Henry stood on Morrison’s back and Morrison choked and fought for breath as if he was literally having the life drained out of him. It made me think about how good a valiant underdog John Morrison versus a dominant Mark Henry title match woud be on PPV. It could be booked just like that epic Jeff Hardy/Undertaker ladder match tussle with both men coming out smelling like roses at the end. Anyway back to reality as things got out of hand somewhat with Sheamus tossing Christian over the barricade and hitting him with hard rights and lefts through the crowd.
This of course left us with Henry and Morrison alone together inside the ring. Morrison continued to sell like a god culminating in a show stealing finish which saw Henry reverse a springboard Enziguri into a worlds strongest slam to get the pinfall. It looked awesome.
This was the only sensibly booked match or segment on the show. It kept Mark Henry protected as a strong champion and showed that the faces in Orton and Sheamus didn’t want to wait till Vengeance to get their hands on their upcoming opponents.
Graphic promoting Miz and Punk for later on in the show. I already feel like I’ve seen this match too many times already and it wasn’t that good to begin with.
Graphic for tag team main event featuring the announcers mixing it up with the main eventers. Throwaway fun finale you say? No course not, it’s the final angle on the go home show for a PPV.
Laurinaitis was backstage talking to his wife. He was interrupted by the Bella Twins who wanted their new boss to make sure that they hadn’t forgotten who they were. He got their names wrong and they corrected him before planting him with a kiss on either side of the cheek. There are some perks to running this crap then. Laurinaitis then got back on the phone to his wife to apologise for the momentary distraction. I can only assume that she doesn’t own a television set…
He was then interrupted by Ricardo Rodriguez who told him to get off the phone because Del Rio was heading his way. Del Rio emerged and told Laurenitis that he was annoyed with the Raw main event announcement. The interim general manager attempted to comfort him by saying that the winner of the match would get to choose the stipulation for his title defence on Sunday.
Before Eve faced off against Natalya it was announced that Beth Phoenix would defend her Divas title against Eve at Vengeance.
2) Match: Eve defeated Natalya via pinfall
Match-up was decent with Natalya showing good attitude in her initial beatdown especially when locking her opponent in an abdominal stretch/choke double submission. Eve then fired back hitting a reverse clothesline and a moonsault for the win. Very paint by numbers short contest with no obvious botches.
CM Punk came out to face Miz. Miz arrived and rapped with Truth. Miz then cut a promo on Punk who was obnoxiously smiling in a manner reminiscent of John Cena. Miz reminded Punk of the beatdown he received at Hell in a Cell. Punk remained smiling. Miz continued on his onslaught asking Punk what hurt more, the fact that he and Truth had ensured that he wouldn’t get another title shot for a very long time or that they had done something which Punk hadn’t managed and that was getting rid of Triple H as COO. Punk finally lashed out with a kick but a moment later when Truth got on the mic he had returned to smiling again. I think Orton is the only main event face who has this non-smiling deal in his contract and he must be darn grateful. Anyway great promo by Miz which actually would have generated some good heat if the face had sold it properly.
Hunter then arrived to an insane attitude era esque reaction to offer support in Punk’s corner.
3) Match: CM Punk defeated Miz via pinfall
Same well worked match as usual but lacking the chemistry to make it anything special. This time however the superb Mexican crowd helped to elevate the in ring action… at least before more dire booking got in the way.
Punk locked in a chin lock to start with Miz reaching the ropes. Both men then traded headlocks before Punk launched Miz into the ropes only for Miz to bounce back and floor him with a shoulderblock. Miz then sent Punk into the ropes who leapfrogged Miz and planted him with a dropkick. Miz scampered to the outside but Punk took him to the ground there as well following a beautifully executed suicide dive.
Match then took a leaf out of last week’s book as Triple H tried to chase a interfering Truth up the ramp. This brought out John Laurenitis and some customs officers who told Triple H that there was an immigration problem that he wanted to talk to him about backstage. We then watched backstage footage of Laurenitis telling Hunter that there was a problem with his papers and forcing him to leave the arena. Otunga in lawyer garment was stood by his side.
We then returned to the match. Yes during this entire kerfuffle the match had still been taking place. Rather than say recap the backstage incident after the match had finished we instead missed a healthy portion of the bout in order to watch Laurenitis tell Hunter the same thing he had already told him when he interrupted the match in the first place.
Back to the ring as Miz grounded Punk with a headlock. Punk fought out with some kicks however and then sent Miz into the ropes, planted him with clotheslines on his return and took Miz to the mat with a swinging neckbreaker. Punk then connected with the high knee into the corner, dropped the Macho Man Elbow and called for the GTS. Miz wriggled out as Truth interfered on the apron. Punk hit out at Truth with a fist but the distraction enabled Miz to set up his Skull Crushing finale. Punk however sent Miz flying into Truth before rolling him up for the pin.
No wonder Punk was smiling earlier if he can so comfortably take care of these two men even without the assistance of Triple H. Why even have a tag match this Sunday?
Post-match Miz and Truth hammered away at Punk causing about a dozen referees to run in and interrupt. These are the same refs who were so terrified by the actions of these two men that they went on strike for fear of their safety. This week however they were exposed as the biggest bunch of imbeciles in the entire arena with Miz distracting them so that Truth could hit his finisher on Punk before Truth caused the distraction that enabled Miz to hit his finisher too.
Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger came out to the ring together with Vickie Guerrero wearing some sort of Mexican dress. She said that she was a goddess in Mexico and pretty much the Angelina Jolie of Mexico City only without the adopted brats. She said that unlike Angelina however she was more than just a pretty face and that her business acumen had successfully granted Dolph and Swagger a tag team titles match against Air Boom this Sunday.
Dolph and Swagger then get on the mic and basically ran down Mexico with Swagger singing the American National Anthem. Ryder interrupted his terrible singing to set up a singles match with the All American, American.
4) Match: Zak Ryder defeated Jack Swagger via pinfall
Swagger out-muscled Ryder in the corner before Ryder simply hit back with some high knees and landed the Rough Ryder for the pinfall.
DUD
Ryder was then about to be double teamed by Ryder and Swagger so the Welsh version of Batista otherwise known as Mason Ryan ran down to make the save. The heels scampered so Ryan got on the mic and told Dolph that they had a match up next.
5) Match: Dolph Ziggler defeated Mason Ryan via DQ
Ryan manhandled Ziggler pretty much from bell to bell. It seems that the recent Mark Henry success has made the company forget about all the giant muscleheads who have been complete failures in the past decade.
The finish saw Ryan destroy the United States champion in the corner resulting in a dq finish. Yes he was disqualified for kicking too much ass.
What an appalling fifteen minutes of television. Two men are booked as challengers for the tag team titles and are then are both made to look like complete goofs in their respective matches. Not only that but the burials did nothing to favour Ryan or Ryder either and as far as I’m aware these two men aren’t even on PPV this Sunday. What a complete waste of time.
Backstage John Cena got Jim Ross fired up with a pep talk as and convinced an initially apprehensive to teach Cole a lesson. Cena didn’t overdo it here and actually came off well as a warm, encouraging babyface.
6) Main Event Tag Match: John Cena and JR defeated Alberto Del Rio and Michael Cole via submission
Alberto Del Rio who has been playing his role to perfection all year round but for whatever reason has still not broken through to the audience, must have been gobsmacked at the overwhelming reaction he received from his Mexican fanbase. JR sent Cole to the mat with a punch first but as soon as Del Rio and Cena got between the ropes the crowd went ballistic for their Mexican champion providing an atmosphere that would have made a Great Khali vs Giant Gonzales match-up an exciting spectacle.
Del Rio and Cena did a mass trade of headlocks and supplexes before Del Rio took control after moving out of the way of Cena’s turnbuckle dive. Del Rio proceeded to give Cena a very watchable ass kicking grounding his opponent with chokes, kicks, fists and supplexes. Each time Cena tried to counter out of a hold the crowd booed and every time Del Rio reasserted his authority, they loudly cheered. It was quite the spectacle though perhaps not the ideal response you want for the face challenger heading into a PPV.
Eventually Cena found an opening after moving out of the way of Del Rio’s top rope manoeuvre and he struck back with a shoulderblock, protobomb and a five knuckle shuffle causing Del Rio to make a panicked tag towards Michael Cole. Cena threw Cole headfirst inside the ring. Cole pleaded for mercy but Cena hit him with an F-U and tagged in Jim Ross who made Cole tap with an ankle lock.
** 1/2
Post-match Cena took out Del Rio with the steel steps and counted to ten whilst the champ laid unconscious. He then said that he chose to compete in a last man standing match with him this Sunday.