WWE Raw Supershow, the new working title in place of Monday Night Raw, took place tonight (Sept. 5, 2011) in Columbus, Ohio. Now that the Labor Day offering is officially in the books, it's time for reactions to all the night's events. As usual, I'll devote a separate post to the big money angle on the show, the CM Punk vs. Triple H vs. Kevin Nash program, which was an absolute mess tonight.
As for the rest of the show (broken down in chronological order):
- "Air Boom" followed the opening segment that featured "The Game," Nash and Punk. Evan Bourne's music has been mixed into Kofi Kingstons and the tag team transition is now officially complete. They might have a somewhat bland look and feel, but they're actually a moderately over old school mega-babyface style tag team. As long as they can manage to get halfway decent matches out of teams like Jinder Mahal and Great Khali, I'm okay with it. Are they the saving grace of the tag team division? No.
- WWE did what they could to capitalize on the article put up on its site this past week that caused a ruckus in the Diva's division. It didn't work, as Beth Phoenix had a botch filled match with Eve that was ultimately a squash leading to her getting a title shot against Kelly Kelly. There, I wrote about the women's division.
- Plugging Twitter accounts is fine in moderation but making a big production out of The Rock hitting one million followers was way too over the top, even for WWE standards. Really, though, it allowed them to hint at his big return for Survivor Series.
- Sure was nice to see Alberto Del Rio back after two weeks off. Hated the way they used him, what with trying to turn everyone in the back against Cena just to set up another bullshit main event, but it was nice to see him back.
- CM Punk was given another match mid-show against the other half of the MIZspiracy, R-Truth. After the epic fail of a match Punk had with Miz last week, I wasn't sure how he would do with Truth but they were solid. Helped that the crowd wasn't a complete dud like Tulsa last week.
- Speaking of Truth and Miz, they're the best thing going on the WWE mid-card right now. They've got AWESOME chemistry and they're gimmicks mix better than I ever would have imagined. It was also genius the way they set up their predictable tag team championship match against "Air Boom" at Night of Champions. Keeping their name associated with the main event players like Triple H is a good thing and will help them later. That's either WWE being smart or Miz doing what he can to keep himself as over with the big dogs as he can, despite his situation. Whatever, it works.
Take the jump for the breakdown of the rest of the show.
- I've yet to jump on the Zack Ryder bandwagon and his first real shot at getting himself over to a larger audience on Raw didn't particularly sway me. But the fact is, it looks like he's finally getting his shot to see if he can make himself as popular to the mainstream as he did with the smart marks. Should be easy enough to get over with Jerry Lawler as a partner in crime and feuding with David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty, two of the most personality-challenged guys on the entire roster.
- Speaking of Ryder, what the hell was the point of having Cena bury him later in the show? Making fun of the wearing glasses indoors may have been a cheap shot at The Rock but it fell ridiculously flat and Cena claiming he was joking didn't help Ryder ... at all. It was pointless and unnecessary.
- I've got my issues with Randy Orton, no different than anyone else. His status with the company is mind-boggling at times but here's the thing -- he's close to being the most over guy on the entire roster. He literally had the crowd chanting for him during a match with Heath Slater. Yes, that guy. You know, the one no one cares about and knew didn't have a chance in hell at actually winning. Which leads me to my next point ...
- What's the point of having Orton come over with his heavyweight title if all he's going to be used for is random squash matches? Last week he killed Ziggler, this week Slater. What does that do for anyone? I'm pretty sure they aren't going to pop a big rating every week just having Orton come over and wrestle nobodies.
- Which leads right into my problem with the current status of the new Raw Supershow gimmick. Two weeks in a row we've had a mismatched tag team main event. This always happens when there is crossover between two shows and while I understand it's a solid way to get as many guys into one match as possible, it's a good indicator that you've got too many guys you're trying to cram into one show. If this is what we'll get week in and week out from this Supershow concept, no thanks.
- Christian vs. Sheamus feud? I'm in.
- So let's get this straight: In his first appearance back on the show after a two week absence, Del Rio walks through the back trying to get everyone he can to attack Cena, it eventually backfires and Cena goes over big anyway and the show ends with Del Rio getting clowned with an Attitude Adjustment and cowering away with Cena mugging like it's his birthday? Oh, okay. Can't wait to watch Cena demolish him at Night of Champions to become the WWE champ for the 7,889,334th time.
Today being Labor Day, I understand executives at WWE weren't expecting a strong rating. That's all well and good but tonight's show was marked with what felt like a big lack of effort all around. That and some wacky booking. More on that later.
For the complete Raw results and live blog click here.