BRM Reviews the 8/12/2013 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

SINGLES MATCH WITH BRAD MADDOX AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett- 4.5/10
I know that having Maddox as the special guest ref does give Wade an extra advantage, but having Dragon tap Wade out in four minutes on Smackdown still kills this match for me. I’m also really not sure what this finish does. It gets some heat on Brad Maddox, but for what reason? Maddox isn’t feuding with anyone. He is, at best, Vince’s pawn. This doesn’t help Dragon vs. Cena, it doesn’t help Wade Barrett, and it doesn’t help Triple H vs. Vince.

RANDY ORTON vs. DAMIEN SANDOW- 5.25/10
Lawler says that having two MITB holders face each other is a unique situation. Yes, a unique situation that WE JUST HAD A FEW WEEKS AGO!
This went on WAY too long, especially if all they were going to do was have Cody screw Sandow out of a win, which is something we’ve seen a whole bunch of times alredy.

SHIELD PROMO- Rollins was definitely channeling his Age of the Fall days in this promo. Reigns was good. Ambrose was AWESOME!

BROCK LESNAR PROMO- same one from Smackdown. For my thoughts on it, see my review of that show.

JOSH MATTHEWS INTERVIEWS CM PUNK- Matthews asked Punk why he would take a match this close to Summer Slam. THE MATCH IS WITH PAUL F*CKING HEYMAN!
Punk was good.

You have Nattie and Tyson Kidd going on the “reality” show, but you are running angles on that, too… so why the hell are Nattie and Khali still together on TV?


BIG E. LANGSTON & AJ LEE vs. THE GREAT KHALI & NATALYA (w/Hornswoggle)- SUPER-DUD!

*CRASH!*
That was sound was me throwing my bottle of whiskey at the TV.
I’m not giving this negative stars because AJ and Nattie were good up until the finish, but first of all… WHAT THE F*CK HAPPENED ON THAT FINISH?!
Secondly, whoever booked this segment should have been fired the minute they pitched it! AJ, the Divas Champion, who has a big match this Sunday at Summer Slam that has been building up for months, TAPPED CLEAN TO A WOMAN WHO BARELY GETS TV TIME! Nattie doesn’t have a match on PPV. AJ does. WHY THE F*CKING WOULD YOU HAVE NATTIE GO OVER AJ?!
Then, Big E. Langston, who also has a big PPV match at Summer Slam, GETS TAKEN OUT WITH ONE MOVE BY THE GREAT KHALI, WHO BARELY GETS ANY TV TIME AND WHO IS AN UTTER FAILURE! To make matters worse, AJ and Big E. are actually IN A TAG TEAM MATCH AT SUMMER SLAM, not only did they both individually get buried, but they buried the team, too! This f*cking sucks. I need a drink….. crap.

VINCE MCMAHON & BRAD MADDOX SEGMENT- Why is Maddox still wearing the referee’s shirt? Oh. Because he wants to be the ref for Summer Slam. They had better not actually do this or I will actually rethink my decision to buy Summer Slam (which I apparently can’t actually order until Thursday).
HUNTER TO THE RESCUE! He Pedigrees Maddox and makes himself referee instead. Doesn’t he need Steph’s support to overrule Vince?

KANE vs. TITUS O’NEIL- pointless squash. Just have Kane cut a promo and have the Wyatt Family interrupt him. The segment to build up the Ring of Fire match was eh.

JOSH MATTHEWS INTERVIEWS THE BELLAS- Apparently there is some sort of power struggle in the Divas locker room. Where the hell did that come from? Anyway, this segment totally sucked… but on the “bright” side, we have a totally pointless six woman tag team match for Summer Slam. If they had actually given this whole thing some thought in advance, they could have build this up as one of those Lucha Libre “captain” six man tag team matches, which would have made a lot more sense with this “who is the queen bee of the Divas locker room?” angle that they are apparently doing.
All in all, it would have been much better to not do this segment and just announce a Kofi vs. Fandango rubber match.


ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. KOFI KINGSTON- 5.75/10

CHRISTIAN VIDEO PACKAGE-great

CHRISTIAN PROMO & SEGMETN WITH DEL RIO- Christian was good. Then Del Rio showed up and said something in Spanish.

ZEB COULTER PROMO- FANTASTIC! I cannot wiat for whatever promo Zeb cuts at Summer Slam

THE USOS vs. THE REAL AMERICANS (w/Zeb Coulter)- 4/10

MIZ TV WITH DRAGON & CENA- Cena says that Miz TV is usually a “train wreck.” That’s kind of a mean thing to say. Not necessarily untrue… but still mean.
They pushed the whole “we have a fair ref now” and “the only issue here is the title” thing so hard that I am scared to death that there will be a swerve here. The segment was great, but then they ruined it with Hunter and (especially) Orton coming out.

R-TRUTH & FANDANGO SEGMENT- DUD!
Why the f*ck did they even do this? They spent all of last week setting up a rubber match between Fandango and Kofi… and rather than blow it off, they have Truth start to feud with Fandango? WTF?!

PAUL HEYMAN & CURTIS AXEL BACKSTAGE- wow. They haven’t been talking about this main event at all. I actually totally forgot about it.

20 MAN BATTLE ROYALE FOR A US TITLE SHOT AT SUMMER SLAM- 6/10
My brother, who hasn’t watched much wrestling since 2004, watched this episode of Raw with me. During the entrances for the battle royale, when he saw Tons of Funk, he referred to them as “A-Train and mentally slower-looking A-Train.”
An okay battle royale, but the booking of the finish made no sense! Henry has been feuding with the Shield all month… but RVD gets the title shot? HUH?!
Oh. That’s why. So I guess we’ll get Henry & Show vs. Reigns & Rollins. This was fine… aside from ROMAN REIGNS NOT SELLING IT AT ALL! Rollins saw Show coming out, he went “OH SH*T!” Reigns had NO EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE AT ALL!

CM PUNK vs. PAUL HEYMAN- no rating. Decent segment.
I can’t tell if Paul is trying to blatantly lie for heat or if he is trying to hype up as being smart, but does anyone really believe that Brock Lesnar had a hand in developing any sort of plan? Paul E. talked for way too long, but otherwise this was very good.

Overall, a pretty good Raw, but it felt like they did a lot of random last-minute changing of direction here.

[DevilWithin]

Yep, couldn't get over the whole end to the Khali/Hornswoggle and E and AJ segment. My thoughts exactly.

How I would've done it? Big ending on Hornswoggle. He turns around...CATCHES the chop from Khali-OVERPOWERS him, then BIG ENDING on him too. Perfect squandered opportunity. I put it as "Guy who might be on TV two times a month goes over the rising star, to an extent."

HATED it too, so you're not alone. I don't exactly remember what he said, bit towards the end, I felt Ambrose went a little ridiculous talking about "John Cena has a trophy, I'm the real champion of the wwe."...No.

[Big Red Machine]

Yep, couldn't get over the whole end to the Khali/Hornswoggle and E and AJ segment. My thoughts exactly.

How I would've done it? Big ending on Hornswoggle. He turns around...CATCHES the chop from Khali-OVERPOWERS him, then BIG ENDING on him too. Perfect squandered opportunity. I put it as "Guy who might be on TV two times a month goes over the rising star, to an extent."

This would have been perfect. Khali can't speak English and he can't work. His only value (aside from being Punjabi and thus, assumedly, a draw in India) is being large. Therefore, the only productive use of him is to put someone else over as being strong enough to lift up and/or beat the large man.

[badnewzxl]

I don't think Reigns no-sold it; he looked intimidated to me. Honestly, the only emotion I've seen Reigns exhibit is intense anger. I think it just made him look a lot less afraid of the Big Show than the other members of the Shield, which is good. Plus, Show didn't look intimidating AT ALL with his shirt tucked into his jeans like that. He looked like someone's mom from the early 90's

[Big Red Machine]

I don't think Reigns no-sold it; he looked intimidated to me. Honestly, the only emotion I've seen Reigns exhibit is intense anger. I think it just made him look a lot less afraid of the Big Show than the other members of the Shield, which is good. Plus, Show didn't look intimidating AT ALL with his shirt tucked into his jeans like that. He looked like someone's mom from the early 90's

How can he not look intimidating. He's the freakin' Big Show. Yeah he didn't look as intimidating as possible, but he's still a giant

[badnewzxl]

I don't think Reigns no-sold it; he looked intimidated to me. Honestly, the only emotion I've seen Reigns exhibit is intense anger. I think it just made him look a lot less afraid of the Big Show than the other members of the Shield, which is good. Plus, Show didn't look intimidating AT ALL with his shirt tucked into his jeans like that. He looked like someone's mom from the early 90's

How can he not look intimidating. He's the freakin' Big Show. Yeah he didn't look as intimidating as possible, but he's still a giant

after watching him for almost 20 years, the novelty of being a giant kinda wears off when it comes to the Big Show. And, as I said, his outfit made him look silly.