Chris Jericho In Ring Segment:
I haven’t seen someone have so much heat with the crowd for a non-wrestling event, than Chris Jericho on this program. Everyone hates Chris Jericho right now, and his speech didn’t help matters much, because he came out and gave the world’s most scummy speech about how he wasn’t sorry at all and that HBK was at fault for his wife getting hit in the face at Summerslam. Y2J is seriously the most hated man in professional wrestling right now, and it’s finally getting good. We need more heels to do this sort of thing; no not hit girls, but to generate heat from non-wrestling things. It could create an incredible amount of drama for the ppv’s and get buyrates, and ratings for sure. If you recall, this is how Andre the Giant turned heel (interview segment turn on Hogan), and so did guys like Savage and others. It was in an interview segment or a non wrestling event that made them great heels. Of course, the wrestling had something to do with it as well, but their actions outside of the ring created a monster heel scenario that couldn’t be ignored. This Chris Jericho push is definitely a huge thing. It’s about time we had a stronger heel than just petty interview time in ring and random empty threats. Y2J’s promo is spectacular, and for a non wrestling event, he really does a great job selling what I am calling “the punch heard round the world”!
Batista defeated Paul Burchill
Way to go WWE! You squashed your up and coming talent! I had initial thoughts that maybe Burchill would get in some great offense and put on a show since Batista was suppose to be selling his so called “injured” leg, but instead he just beat the crap out of Paul Burchill for no apparent reason! Seriously, what is the WWE thinking here? Paul was getting a mini-feud and even a shot at the Intercontinental Championship, but now? Now he’s getting squashed in matches against Batista, one night after Batista fought Cena in what King Jerry Lawler says was the best match ever! This is just the wrong move, in my opinion, and I don’t understand why the WWE doesn’t believe in their up and coming talent at all. It’s about time the WWE wakes up. This was just a squash match, and this is the norm for WWE these days.
Mike Adamle Introduces Primo Colon:
Mike Adamle introduces Carlito’s brother, Primo Colon, only to run off and try to talk to Cena. Cena then runs into Batista and tells him the better man won, but that it was just last night. Primo Colon? What happened to Carlito? No wonder the WWE fired 10 or so guys, they needed money to pay these new guys coming in…unless Primo is just another squash guy like the Smackdown show last week. Whatever the case is, we have a new talent, which will most likely get squashed sooner than later. I’m tired of seeing new guys, no name guys, get introduced and then get passed up for other talent. I don’t know if you noticed, but this backstage segment illustrates the WWE as a whole. New guys come in, and then get passed by for older, more established talent. Primo Colon could get fired before he even gets started…wouldn’t that be a kicker?
Kelly Kelly & Mickie James defeated Jillian & Katie Burchill
Again with the tag matches from the WWE. It always seems to be that the divas get a tag team match on Raw and usually I’m impressed. However, I feel that I’m on overload from the WWE divas. They aren’t that good at wrestling, and seeing Mickie James in tag matches all the time is getting stale for me. Yes, this match was better than most of the divas matches, but it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. These matches are entertaining on a certain level, but they never really forward any storyline, or even have any meaning. I don’t mean dramatic storytelling, I mean wrestling wise. Why are these particular women wrestling? Who’s getting the title shot next? Who cares? That’s the thing, no one cares, and it shows. Kelly Kelly was definitely taking some major shots, and I almost feel bad for her. She doesn’t fall correctly, and it shows as well. But then again, that’s why she gets paid the big bucks, and I sit at a computer wishing I was getting tossed around by the women of WWE; the match though, good stuff, standard divas match. Mickie James gets the hot tag, clears the ring for the most part, Kelly helps out afterwards, only to get the eventual win with the big ddt for the win. Mickie James gets the pin, and Mickie and Kelly win the match.
JBL defeated Jamie Noble
Jamie Noble had a moment of offense only to get JBL squashing Noble. JBL is massive compared to Noble. I say this a lot about Noble, and that’s: Why Isn’t Noble fired? Noble as a professional can’t possibly be enjoying his jobber status in the WWE. He could be such a valuable entity to other companies, including TNA and ROH. I know that they don’t pay as much, but they probably won’t squash him this bad every week on national television. His weight is really getting the best of him, and without the WWE getting into a cruiserweight division any time soon, these types of matches are only going to serve to prove that the WWE has no idea what they are doing in regards to what the fans want. However, I digress, because at Summerslam and at Raw the WWE sold out the arenas. So maybe they know what the WWE fans want. Just not what this wwe fan wants, but that doesn’t matter. Noble got assaulted bad in this match, he was on the receiving end of three Clotheslines from Hell and the Ref stopped the match. The announcers didn’t even sound concerned over Noble’s condition. JBL was made to look concerned over losing to CM Punk.
Mike Adamle Announcement:
Mike Adamle announces a Championship Scramble for Unforgiven’s main event. Not sure what that necessarily means, other than it’s a gimmick match and most likely Punk will lose the title and then win it later on in the match up.
John Cena defeated Priceless
What is the reasoning behind this move? I was wondering what the WWE was thinking in this one. Since Batista got let off the hook for tonight, I was under the impression that John Cena too would get a squash match up with some random WWE guy. Instead, John Cena is thrown to the tag team champions! What the heck? This can not have a positive result, can it? Cryme Tyme did run in and steal the WWE Tag Title Belts, infuriating Dibiase and Rhodes.
As far as the match up, this was a standard wrestling match for the most part. John Cena was getting beat down for the majority of the match up. Cena was not getting an easy win, and this is surprising to me somehow, but after thinking about it a bit more, it makes sense. If John Cena is to be the #1 face in the company, he has to get beat down a lot! Remember Hulk Hogan, yeah I’m going back to the Hogan era of sorts; Hogan had a lot of matches where he was getting beat down, whether by monster heels or by the tag team champions. He would recover and win the match with his patented leg drop. Is John Cena now the new Hulk Hogan? I was sure thinking that in this match, as the tag champions were making Cena look like a jobber with their constant punishment! This whole thing turned around, just like the classic Hulkamania VHS tapes that I used to collect, and the five knuckle shuffle was followed by the STFU and Cena comes through again in the clutch and wins the match.
I am always against singles wrestlers beating an established tag team. But I am even more against seeing one person lose to the tag team champions! Had I booked this, I would have the tag team champions win, even by DQ if possible, because I believe that a good tag team can defeat one guy, no matter what. The WWE could say that John Cena was tired from Summerslam and couldn’t fend off two different opponents, but instead, WWE chooses to bury the tag division by having them lose a handicap match!
CM Punk Interview:
CM Punk calls out Chris Jericho, and talks about how he’s going to lay down the law in a Chicago style match up.
D-Lo Brown defeated Santino via DQ
D-Lo brown already gets an Intercontinental championship match? Sure, why not? The WWE is throwing all caution to the wind and just giving out shots at the title left and right. At least we didn’t get a Kofi Kingston rematch clause match one night after losing it. That is usually the norm for the WWE and their title situation. I guess Kofi will have to settle for getting a shot later on down the road. Santino shows he has no wrestling skills, but I like this. I think it’s a great move for him. D-Lo controls the match up, and nearly beats him. Beth Phoenix got involved in the match up and caused a DQ, Santino then gets thrown into the announce table and Kofi Kingston smashes Santino’s head into Lawler’s Mac Book! Someone owes King a new laptop, that’s for sure! Santino retains his belt, but only because Phoenix’s interference. I enjoyed this match, and Santino has a great comedic timing about him. The match really went nowhere, but it was great to see that a comedic title reign can generate so much entertainment. That’s all this is folks, entertainment.
Kane In Ring Segment:
Kane talks bad about Rey Mysterio. He says that he basically killed off Rey Mysterio. This could be because Rey is arguing for more money, or that he needs more time to heel his injuries. Batista comes out for the save, and Batista gets beat down. This is most likely why he didn’t wrestle the tag champions, because he was going to get pwned by Kane! Kane demolishes Batista, and the announcers say it’s because Batista was injured. Kane leaves and we all are thinking one thing; whether or not Rey Mysterio will return to WWE, or go straight to Mexico and make some major cash by going to Lucha Libre?
Chris Jericho defeated CM Punk
If I complain about the John Cena matches, I’m going to have to complain about CM Punk’s matches too. His matches are really formulaic as well. There are never any battles that go both ways, he is usually the face in peril and doesn’t really get over until the closing moments of the match. Sure there are a few flurries here and there, but for the most part Punk doesn’t really get a whole lot of back and forth momentum. Maybe it’s because most of his matches aren’t very long, or maybe it’s just that it works better for him. Jericho and CM Punk did put on a show though, and whatever criticism I had for the match vanished towards the middle of the match when things started to really turn around. Maybe I spoke to soon, but the match was going towards a good point and we even saw some new moves for Punk to add to his arsenal. There were a lot of near falls, that’s for sure, thrilling the home town crowd seemed simple for Punk. Lance Cade caused a diversion, and Jericho pulled out the Code Breaker for the win! Too bad this wasn’t for the world title. Jericho really put on a great match up, and he’s looking great.
WWE Raw 8/17/2008 Results
John Cena defeated Priceless
JBL defeated Jamie Noble
Kelly Kelly & Mickie James defeated Jillian & Katie Burchill
Batista defeated Paul Burchill
D-Lo Brown defeated Santino via DQ
Chris Jericho defeated CM Punk
The Y2J and HBK angle could take a swerve too! What if people cheered the crap out of Y2J? Then HBK could be bitter about the whole thing, and turn into a Bret Hart type character. Y2J could be the face…but then again…this isn’t the Attitude Era.
There were some interesting developments in the story line department. Some things were pushed, while other things were given their natural closures. The Intercontinental championship is getting really interested now. I like that the mid card is getting the attention that it deserves.
CM Punk’s way over with the crowd, and because it was his home town, the arena went insane! Seriously, the place erupted like I haven’t seen on Raw in a long time. CM Punk is quite the fan favorite, considering that he’s not a huge guy and continues to wear the belt with pride. I like Punk’s title reign so far, and hopefully people will stop saying that he’s just a transitional champion. The crowd was red hot for him too, I was impressed, that’s for sure.
The overall show was good, I enjoyed it for the most part. I felt that there were some moments wasted. I thought for sure that there would be more, but it seemed to be just enough show in 2 hours to make it worthwhile.
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