The Breakdown
This week’s WWE Monday Night Raw opens with a video tribute to the troops on Veteran’s Day, narrated by John Cena. After that, we got a recap of last week’s rehiring of Big Show, followed by his beat down at the hands of Randy Orton and The Shield. It is nice they had the Veteran’s Day opening since they are in the U.K. tonight.
Randy Orton opened the show and talked about Big Show “blackmailing” his way into the championship match. Orton then said that since The Authority was not there, he was in charge. Brad Maddox interrupted and said that, as the GM, he is in charge. Kane came out and said he was in charge. Maddox booked Orton to fight Cody Rhodes. Kane booked Orton to fight Goldust. Orton said he could beat both. Vickie Guerrero came out and said that Orton should get his way and booked a two-on-one handicap match, Randy Orton vs. The Rhodes Dynasty.
The match went strong until Orton was tired of fighting and walked out, losing the match by disqualification. However, as Orton was backing out of the arena, the music of The Big Show started. Big Show came out and started beating up Orton. Finally, Big Show dragged the steel steps over to the announcer’s table and dragged Orton up the steps to choke slam him through the table. This was an impressive start to this week’s show and Big Show left the arena for a pint to celebrate.
Up next were Los Matadores and Santino Marella as they took on 3MB, who called themselves The Union Jacks. The fans actually appreciated it and chanted for 3MB – which is not what I think the WWE expected. Santino pinned Jinder Mahol when he pulled out his cobra – which had bull horns – and hit the Cobra. JBL was right on when he called this horrible.
Backstage, the doctor was working on Orton’s injuries when Brad Maddox and Vicki Guerrero came into apologize. He said he didn’t want to hear it and told them to leave. Kane came in and Orton told him to leave too, but Kane said if Orton kept mouthing off to him, Big Show wouldn’t be his only problem.
WWE Monday Night Raw came back from commercial and Damien Sandow was already in the ring waiting for his opponent Kofi Kingston. Sandow was really aggressive in this match and has been on fire since losing to John Cena. I really like the new Damien Sandow and his new aggression reminds me of Randy Savage.
Dolph Ziggler came out next to fight Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship, a match that came about after Ziggler beat Axel last week. The match was a decent one, and evenly matched, and Axel won with a nice counter into his neckbreaker to retain his title.
Backstage, Kane and Brad Maddox were arguing. Maddox said that Vickie might be right when it comes to the handicap match idea and booked The Real Americans vs. John Cena. Kane one-upped him by booking The Shield against CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
Tamina Snuka took on Nikki Bella in the next match. Tamina Snuka won thanks to AJ Lee’s interference but Brie Bella got revenge at the end with a dropkick for both Snuka and AJ.
Backstage, Orton was continuing to get his shoulder worked on when The Shield walked in. Orton asked where The Shield was when he was attacked and Dean Ambrose told him it was none of his business. Seth Rollins said they don’t work for Vickie Guerrero, Brad Maddox or Kane. Roman Reigns then finished by saying that they damn well don’t work for Orton. Rollins finished with “feel better” and they walked out.
The next match is based on the “Total Divas” TV show. Natalya was doing some training with Fandango and her husband Tyson Kidd was very jealous about it. That led to this match as Tyson Kidd wrestled Fandango. Fandango won with a roll up.
John Cena came out next for his handicap match against The Real Americans. Even the fans in the UK chanted “We The People.” Zeb Colter turned them against them when he said real Americans could run the country and make it a better place to live. Halfway through the match, Alberto Del Rio came out, distracting Cena. The match was really good and all three men looked great. Cena won with the STF. After the match, Del Rio took a chair into the ring and beat the hell out of Cena’s hurt arm with it before locking in the cross arm breaker until Big E Langston ran in for the save.
Ryback was up next to take on R-Truth. The match ended in a major upset when R-Truth rolled up Ryback for the pin.
Thanks to Big E Langston saving John Cena earlier in the show, Vickie Guerrero booked him to fight Alberto Del Rio, so Del Rio could try to “prove” why it was a mistake. Big E kept things close but Del Rio made him tap out to the cross arm breaker.
Paul Heyman made his return next. He was in a wheelchair, with a cast on his leg, a neck brace and his arm in a sleeve. Curtis Axel was by his side. Heyman blamed Ryback, calling him a big ugly dummy. Heyman said he would return with a vengeance and hover over CM Punk, but then Punk came out and beat the heck out of Heyman with a kendo stick.
After the beat down, Daniel Bryan came out and joined CM Punk for their handicap match against The Shield. The match was fantastic as expected with these five men. The end came when Punk had Ambrose locked in the Anaconda Vice but the lights went out. When they came back on The Wyatt Family was on one side, Punk and Bryan on the other and Rollins and Ambrose in the middle. Punk shoved Rollins into Luke Harper.
After that, Rollins started yelling at the Wyatt’s for getting involved in their match. When Ambrose tried to get Rollins to back off, Harper slapped at Ambrose and the four went nose to nose. Outside of the ring, Roman Reigns was yelling at Bray Wyatt to call off his guys but then Bray sucker punched Reigns and they ended up in the ring. All six men started to fight and the place went nuts until Bray and Reigns finally separated everyone and Bray said they have a common enemy.
All six went after Punk and Bryan until The Usos and Rhodes Dynasty ran out for the save to clear the ring and the show ended with the good guys in the ring and the fans cheering as Daniel Bryan’s song playing the show off the air.
The Analysis
Wow, this was a great show. It felt at times liked it dragged at points, but the story was more about the wrestlers and less about The Authority, which made it more enjoyable. Even the bickering between the three power players in the back was not too distracting and I like how Orton was all alone without Triple H there to protect him.
I also love the fact that they ended the show with The Shield, The Wyatt Family, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, and the reaction of the crowd showed how much they loved it too. Keeping the Big Show and Randy Orton feud minimized makes it better, since the two men are not the most exciting in the ring or on the mic. I don’t mind them taking Bryan and Punk out of the title hunt if they continue to focus on them like this. It was a very nice WWE Monday Night Raw episode with a fantastic ending.
