No your eyes do not deceive you! I am still here! Some of you may be aware of how busy I have been recently and that I have not been able to express my thoughts with you all for quite some time. For that, I apologise.
This week’s RAW didn’t exactly inspire me to write about wrestling as nothing really seems to be happening in the WWE at the moment. As much as I love the fact that CM Punk is being recognised by the company with his record breaking WWE Championship reign it is obviously apparent that WWE is indeed treading water until the New Year.
We all know that Punk and Rock will face each other at the Royal Rumble, but why oh why can we not believe that something else could happen? For the past few months we have been stuck in a syndrome where we know that nothing can or will happen other than what we expect with CM Punk.
We had the year long build up to Cena VS The Rock at WrestleMania and we had a similar problem in the fact that Cena and Kane’s rivalry suffered because of this. The same thing has happened with Punk and Ryback. WWE cannot take the championship from Punk at this stage or make Ryback look weak as he has been pushed in to this position way too soon.
WWE drastically was forced to make this move because of Cena’s injury but I’m not quite sure why they keep booking themselves in to the corner. They felt they had to make the triple threat at Survivor Series for the title because of the poor response from the Team Punk VS Team Foley match which was originally made, but why have Punk and Ryback go for a third time at TLC? The finish seems obvious and we are all expecting Shield to cost Ryback the match again. Logically we should have had some kind of match between Ryback and Shield, but WWE again put them in to a corner because they don’t want either side to take a loss at this stage. Cena and Punk seems the more logical option for TLC to at least let you suspend your disbelief that it may be Cena and Rock Part II at the Rumble.
With that being said it all just seems so bland at the minute. We haven’t got the Punk heel character that I was hoping for. I’m fed up that EVERY heel has to be a coward. Yes, variety is the key and to make Punk look like the same credible threat to everyone whilst gaining heat is no bad thing. I can’t count how many times I’ve mentioned how awesome Kurt Angle and Triple H were as heels. These guys didn’t want to be in a street fight or a hell in a cell match but when they were in pushed in to the corner they beat the face clean, forcing you to believe that they are credible and that people like a John Cena won’t just run over them like a truck.
A perfect example of this would be Dolph Ziggler from the past few weeks. Dolph beat Randy clean twice in the same week and people were finally starting to think that he could become a credible threat to anyone, until he faced one-legged super Cena with on RAW this past Monday and still lost clean. WWE are too frightened to actually make characters have depth. I understand that in WWE good is supposed to overcome evil but shouldn’t there also be the times when it doesn’t? When was the last time Cena lost a match clean? The Rock? Before that? I have no clue off the top of my head. That isn’t realistic, its comic book stuff and it’s taken too far. Cena will inspire a young audience but in the long run he will just be seen as a Hogan version 2 because WWE won’t allow him to be human. WWE won’t allow Cena to have chinks in his armour or have a weak spot, he has been in the WWE for 10 years and has quite simply been unstoppable for most of it.
Anyway, off my rather battered soap box and back to RAW.
The matches on this week’s show lacked any interest it was unbelievable! Ryback and Titus O’Neil? Kofi Kingston and Tensai? Sheamus and Cesaro? Del Rio and Khali? They were all predictable and the only saving grace is that Cesaro saw it as a chance to get himself noticed. I originally was very negative on the announcement that Sheamus and Cesaro was going to face each other as I thought it was a lose-lose scenario. But to give those guys credit, they wanted to stand out. Cesaro put in an extra effort and Sheamus made him look like a million dollars. The outcome was inevitable but at least it was a count-out rather than a pin.
I wish they would just pair up Del Rio and Mendes already and forget the whole Khali and Hornswoggle angle. When the first segment came on backstage I was worried that this was something being built up for TLC but at least they got the match out of the way on RAW. Hopefully it won’t be taking up too much TV time in future; I do however fear the worst.
Shield’s promo was fairly solid. It’s too early to make many judgements at this stage but we know all 3 of the guys have potential, let’s hope that they AND WWE take full advantage of this stable.
The segment between John Cena, AJ, Vickie and Ziggler was horrendous. The sheer fact that nobody has sat down and questioned why Vickie keeps calling this an affair is beyond me. Surely to be having an affair you have to actually be with someone in the first place? Sigh. I had hoped that the segment was going to improve with Ziggler coming out, especially when he called it himself. However, when he just made it about jealously my shoulders dropped. It’s getting so poor that I’m actually expecting a 10 year old child to jump the barricade and tell them all too just grow up!
It actually became worse later in the show as we all know that Cena ran over Ziggler and pretty much destroyed the momentum he has built up over the past couple of weeks. It was simply pointless and stupid.
Someone else needs to sit down and reconsider these Raw-interactive polls on Twitter. With Daniel Bryan’s popularity and the sheer fact that his vote was trending, how the hell did he lose that poll? Make it believable at least!
One of the small highlights was the fact that Zack Ryder has got Ghostbusters inspired ring attire, and I don’t even have an interest in his character! Yes, that’s how poor this RAW felt.
I think someone needs to have a word with Roman Reigns backstage because that spear he performed on Ryback during the powerbomb on the closing segment of RAW was flat out dangerous. Where could Punk go in that situation? What would have happened with the current storyline if Punk had been injured in that move? The rear chop block would have been the most logical move in that situation but to attack him from the front like that had my heart in my mouth.
Overall, RAW didn’t draw me in and I feel like we need to get to mid January fairly quickly just to feel like we can get some television that isn’t obvious and mundane.
But, were all wrestling fans and the one saving grace for this past Monday is that some of the action between the ropes was fairly entertaining, let’s just hope creative get some decent ideas too.
Are you happy with the current product or do you feel that WWE is treading water until The Rock returns? Is 3 Hours becoming too much for WWE to produce on a Monday night or are you happy with the current state in this traditional flat period of the year?
Email me at [email protected] or tweet me @BeansOnToastUK.
Don’t forget to listen to Virtually Reality where Adam Gorzelsky and myself discuss all things pro-wrestling over at www.vowlive.com.
