Raw 10-21-13

[MGFanJay]

Last week's show was just a show except for the main event. This one followed about that same pattern, only with a contract signing instead of a match. None of the matches really stood out, although at least the one with Zeb's commentary was memorable for that. Stone Cold Paul Wight was amusing and the Cena hype video was hilariously over-the-top. Best stuff definitely involved Zeb and Paul E's coked-up promo style returning.

 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2013/10/raw-10-21-13.html

 

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http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/d2now4rvuxafnw6yl9pzyi1zp2h90wfd

[RIPPA]

Big E Fucking Langston

[MGFanJay]

And fucking SHOOBABY!

[piranesi]

God I love how gassed Paul got just standing in place yelling for twenty seconds.  He was seriously about to collapse.  But that promo was some 80s+cocaine+Piper level awesome.Also, am I bad at watching wrestling, or was that women's match really fucking good once AJ started bumping like Perfect and making Brie Bella look like Ultimate Warrior.

[Kropotkin's Beard]

I enjoyed the opener between Bryan & Ambrose. And the ending of the episode was just the right kind of goofy, with Bryan on the roof of the big rig & Big Show leaning out the door leading a yes chant.

 

R-Truth doing his best Don West impression was also pretty fun, & I liked the Cena recovery diary stuff. Because even watching it I'm not really sure how he's come back so soon.

 

The CM Punk interview dragged on a bit, but then him & Big E had an enjoyable tag match (& talking of Langston, his segment before that with Heyman, Ryback & Axel was pretty good). They seem to be doing a good job building up Langston at the moment, long may it continue. I also really liked the super dumb Santino, Hornswaggle & Khali 3 Elvises bit, & the King Cobra.

 

An enjoyable show.

[MADCAP]

I thought altogether, the wrestling wasn't bad, save the Santino match.  I thought it was a good show.

[Hagan]

Zeb bringing back Shoo Baby was awesome.

 

Cena hype video got me pumped up, so it worked.

 

And holy fuck was that last segment overbooked. I mean, can someone just point out in a promo that this whole angle began when Bryan beat Cena, who they're basically hyping as the resurrected Christ, clean in the middle of the ring? I get that heels are inherently delusional but the babyfaces and the announcers are treating it like Bryan is the underdog. He's basically beat Randy Orton EVERY SINGLE TIME they've fought this year (Pedigree aside). Orton might be the first heel to ever not be intimidated going into the Cell against a babyface. I mean, Bryan is getting the belt and is probably going to have a length CM Punk-type run while the tippy-top guys do whatever they do, which I'm more than okay with because he'll be able to have tremendous, lengthy title matches, but this angle has been so fucking backwards. They DID tease a Hunter/Bryan match, so that's something.  

[Overly Critical Man]

Stone Cold Paul Wight driving into the arena doesn't quite capture the same excitement as it did when a smaller Texan did it in the late 90s.

[Greggulator]

I missed the beginning segment.

 

Dean/Bryan -- Oh, you know, not much to see here aside from 20 minutes from two of the best in the world putting on a clinic. So awesome.

 

Santino/Heath -- I was expecting good things from the WWE's two best comedy guys. This suuuuucked a huge turd.

 

Ziggler/Orton -- Randy's hot streak continues in another ***+ match. One of the my favorite RKOs ever. Ziggler took that great.

 

AJ & Tamina/Bellas -- Weird match. Tamina as muscle isn't so bad. Not great, but not bad. Brie has really turned it on lately. She's improved a lot and looks like she at least cares. Nikki's still awful. AJ was her usual good self. The last two divas matches have been light years better than that disaster with Eva Marie.

 

Wyatts/Miz & Kofi -- This ruled. Harper and Rowan just beasted everyone one in this. I liked Kofi's apron work a lot. Rowan had some good power stuff. Harper had his best showing yet -- took a frankensteiner, hit that nasty ass powerslam/piledriver thing. Kudos to Kofi for being willing to lose a few weeks of his life taking that lariat, which might be my favorite finisher. I could watch Bray tormenting Miz like that all the time. THAT is mid-card wrestling right there. Good stuff.

 

I loved the segue from Big E. getting jumped to the tag match. And, yeah, another really solid match. Big E. is really good. Glad to see they're putting this behind him and giving him some rub from Punk.

 

We The People/Tons Of Funk was bleh. They're essentially Cesaro swinging people at this point. Zeb was hilarious again in color commentary repeating a mix of my weird uncle's e-mails and newspaper comment sections. I loved the bullwhip, too. Very Bobby Knight. The Torito in-screen promo was awesome, too. So weird.

 

Usos/Shield -- This friggin' ruled. They just tossed each other around like madmen. A little disappointed in Roman's trash talk game tonight but Goldust on commentary more than made up for it. I loved the end segment -- totally hate filled and it ends with The Usos and Rhodes Boys in a stand-off. Might have been a bit better if Dean somehow instigated a brawl between those four. But I'm nitpicking. This was great. Tag team wrestling is the best kind of wrestling.

 

Contract signing -- Daniel Bryan, hipster Austin. Fun segment and all these parts and backstory and history are combined and its a really magical time to watch wrestling right now. YES! YES! YES!

[MGFanJay]

There isn't nearly enough love for Show's awesome leather button-down shirt. He can take the semi truck clubbing after the show. Bring Dusty and make it clubbering.

[Hagan]

Oh, and I love JBL but they need to reign him in. Him going off on random yelling tangents isn't doing anyone any favors. They need to pull a season 4 Eastbound and throw in a quick-witted babyface on there to bury him for a segment for all the stupid shit he's done in his career. Someone just needs to mention that "Always Pounding Ass" t-shirt.  

[Overly Critical Man]

I dunno whether JBL bringing up Cody stealing the MitB briefcase was a good thing or a bad thing. Seeing how Cody's move so far away from that now...I might lean towards bad thing.

[piranesi]

 

Wyatts/Miz & Kofi -- This ruled. Harper and Rowan just beasted everyone one in this. I liked Kofi's apron work a lot. Rowan had some good power stuff. Harper had his best showing yet -- took a frankensteiner, hit that nasty ass powerslam/piledriver thing. Kudos to Kofi for being willing to lose a few weeks of his life taking that lariat, which might be my favorite finisher. I could watch Bray tormenting Miz like that all the time. THAT is mid-card wrestling right there. Good stuff.

 

The problem with the Wyatt's is that their whole gimmick relies on the horror of being "taken" by them or whatever.  But they never "take" anyone.  It's been, it feels like five months?  In this space of time they should have murdered five different people.  And yeah, they beat Kane and he's "gone" but that's it....and it took them forever and since then they haven't actually done anything to anyone that would be concerning.  I guess Miz is "next" but,  Jesus, no way it should take them that long to dispatch him of Kofi to the horror-barn.  

But without seeing some horrific consequences for Kane, why would anyone worry anyway?  He's just, like, "off t.v." like he would be if he was beaten down by anyone else.

We need to see him horribly ruined in some way, and we should have seen it weeks ago, so there would some sense that Miz or Kofi were in actual danger.  The camera should carry us into some barn, into a little enclosure and we should see what Kane has been turned into:

or possibly even worse:

 

[PuroresuFan]

I wish most wrestlers had a fraction of what Ambrose has when it comes to selling. He sold the arm for the rest of the match including that clothesline he hit after getting it worked over. He was still selling the arm later in the show when he came back out.

[Big Fresh]

The in-ring action was fantastic on this Raw. Ambrose/Bryan, Ziggler/Orton, and Uso's/SHIELD were all fantastic. And Big E.'s match was just a step below that.

And Cody vs. JBL was amazing too.

If this was only 2 hours, we'd be going crazy over this Raw. Or maybe we've been spoiled by how good the in-ring action has been all year.

[Reed]

We'll find out the Wyatts take their victims to a cabin in the remote woods, lock them up then force them to watch Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 over and over again.

[Greggulator]

The in-ring action was fantastic on this Raw. Ambrose/Bryan, Ziggler/Orton, and Uso's/SHIELD were all fantastic. And Big E.'s match was just a step below that.And Cody vs. JBL was amazing too.If this was only 2 hours, we'd be going crazy over this Raw. Or maybe we've been spoiled by how good the in-ring action has been all year.

 

I think we're spoiled. I'm kind of upset when there's not a MOTYC at this point. Ziggler/Orton was excellent and might not even be in the best ten matches of October.

[Reed]

I think Heyman needs to be given a wellness test after that promo. Just saying.

[Overly Critical Man]

We'll find out the Wyatts take their victims to a cabin in the remote woods, lock them up then force them to watch Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 TNA Impact over and over again.

Had to up the horror factor there to truly make them monsters.

[Curt McGirt]

I was laughing my ass off at Zeb mentioning Stockholm Syndrome seconds after I thought about him doing that. There was another line in there that seriously cracked me up but I can't remember it. Zeb and JBL were killing it on the mic tonight and made a pretty standard go-home Raw into a laugh-fest. Hell, Cole and Lawler cracking up a lot helped that out too. 

 

Big E. Langston Super Face is going to fucking rule.

[TimLivingston]

Ziggler taking that bump on the exploder is fucking ridiculous.

[MGFanJay]

We'll find out the Wyatts take their victims to a cabin in the remote woods, lock them up then force them to watch Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 over and over again.

And Karate Dog.

[Big Z]

I actually enjoyed the Santino segment. On a three hour show, nothing wrong with one comedy relief segment. Bitter old man J.R. was bitching about comedy stuff on his blog, but good comedy always has its place on the show for me. And one day we need a Colt Cabana/Santino tag team.

[Craig H]

Big E Motherfuckin' Langston. My man. I'd bet my house that if they pushed him like they did last night for about a good two months, they'd have a superstar.

 

That said, I anticipate that he'll get his legs cut out from underneath him by HHH next week.

[Greggulator]

I actually enjoyed the Santino segment. On a three hour show, nothing wrong with one comedy relief segment. Bitter old man J.R. was bitching about comedy stuff on his blog, but good comedy always has its place on the show for me. And one day we need a Colt Cabana/Santino tag team.

 

I love comedy wrestling. Santino/Emma vs. Fandango/Summer is on the short list of my favorite matches of ever. But this was pretty bad and didn't really go anywhere. If they set it up w/ Heath and 3MB talking about how much they hate Elvis and how they replaced him and then those dudes come out, it's pretty golden. I would have rioted if they came out and talked smack on Big Star.