The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The 900th Edition of Monday Night Raw 8.30.2010

QUICK RESULTS

- The Miz and Alex Riley defeated Kofi Kingston and Michael McGillicutty and Daniel Bryan and Kaval when Miz pinned Kaval

- Melina and Eve defeated Co-Womens Champions LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool)

- #1 Contenders Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles: John Morrison and R-Truth vs. "Dashing" Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre went to a no contest

- Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker never began as Nexus and Kane interfered

- Jack Swagger defeated Evan Bourne by submission with the ankle lock

- Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Michael Tarver, and Heath Slater) defeated John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Edge, and Chris Jericho

• "Pro Wrestling > Sports Entertainment" - This sign flashed on the screen for a solid second while Bret Hart was giving his rousing speech about the history of Monday Night Raw. You speak the truth good sir.
• "There is no Undertaker anymore!" - I have to say that Kane was terribly stale for a long, long while but I am more interested in him now than any other point in his career other than when he first appeared on the scene. While reaction to the rebirth of this feud has been largely negative on the internet I have to say that I am starting to get sucked in. Will Kane finally get over on his older brother? While he probably won't the Big Red Monster is certainly talking the talk. The Boston crowd was super hot for this entire segment so that really added something special to it all. Side note: Kane's belly button is disgusting. Get that fixed, big fella.

More Raw analysis after the jump!

• KAVAL AND DANIEL BRYAN~! - "The team made in internet heaven," "all internet all the time" and "at a combined weight 195 pounds and a combined height 5'9" - Michael Cole. Suck it, Cole. Smarks everywhere pitched tents in their pants over this dream pairing during the triple threat tag match. The Miz and Alex Riley winning made sense and the storyline between Miz and Bryan progressed nicely. It was also encouraging to see two non-traditional WWE superstars continue to look solid in the ring. The fact that both Bryan and Kaval rely mainly on strikes works in their favor as their offense looks believable against bigger adversaries.
• History in my WWE - Cole referencing the Ministry of Darkness, the Corporate Ministry AND SummerSlam '97? Can this happen more often, please?
• Lights out! - I must say that the WWE is getting good at teasing Bret Hart matches and then pulling the ol' bait and switch at the last minute. While my colleague Geno isn't feeling the resurgence of Kane I have to say that he has officially won me over. The Big Red Monster is controlling the gong...he's in the position of power! Intrigue~! Suspense~!! While I liked this segment I am a little worried at the way in which Nexus is getting over. The assault on The Undertaker didn't carry the same meaning as it could have since they benefited from Kane's hijinks instead of out and out beating him down.
• History in my WWE pt. 2 - It wouldn't be the 900th episode of Monday Night Raw without a passing mention of the Katie Vick angle. Thank you, CM Punk.
• CM Punk on the stick - While the segment itself also found its way onto my Bad list I have to give credit where credit is due: CM Punk's promo was absolutely awesome. 

The Bad

• "The end of Y2J...again?" - This isn't the traditional type of bad as the interview that Jericho gave to Josh Matthews was top notch but it also all but cemented the fact that he probably won't be resigning with the WWE. Huge bummer if that is the case as Jericho has quietly been the MVP of Raw for months now. If this is his swan song I hope he goes out with a bang instead of a whimper.
• R-Truth/John Morrison vs. "Dashing" Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre - Honestly, what was the point of that? It's widely accepted that the tag team division has seen much better days and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon. This will probably set up some sort of tag team gauntlet match at Night of Champions where three or four of the teams will be random pairings of Superstars who have nothing going on. Man, I can't wait until Christian and MVP or Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu become tag team champions! With the amount of original programming the WWE has to churn out weekly it makes no sense to me why they can not give any attention to tag team wrestling.
• Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne / Alberto Del Rio / Mark Henry - This entire segment made little sense. Swagger squashed Bourne but no one knew because Alberto Del Rio hijacked the proceedings. He then decided to give Bourne the Rey Mysterio treatment because, I assume, they are roughly the same size. But, before Del Rio could complete the burial of Evan Bourne, Mark Henry(??????) came out for the save. Gotta feel for Bourne here: one minute you are tagging with John Cena and looking to possibly break through to the next level and the next you are jobbing to a guy that isn't even on your show who also happens to be stuck in neutral. Questionable booking all around.
• CM Punk and Big Show yap it up - While I really liked the essence of CM Punk's promo I had a huge problem with the segment on a larger scale: why are four Smackdown superstars airing their grievances on Monday Night Raw? This felt like a way to get two guys who had huge roles on Raw through the years on television for a few minutes. Pretty big waste of time.
• The Nexus vs. Cena, Orton, Sheamus, Jericho and Edge minus Jericho and Edge - This was a really weird match even without the shenanigans of Edge and Jericho. It dragged on for a while before it turned into the typical finisher fest that multi-man main event matches usually headline RAW. It was almost as if the producers realized that they were ten minutes past 11:05 and that they needed go home ASAP. Slater scoring the pin on Sheamus was a surprise. As was Gabriel pinning Cena clean. Orton and Super Cena clowning four fifths of the Nexus wasn't surprising, however. Nexus wins by the skin of their teeth but really doesn't look any stronger for it. Also, the talk of Skip Sheffield being considered part of the fat that was trimmed from their ranks is mind blowing to me as he looked to be the only other member who looked to be headed to the next level before his ankle injury. We'll see if he comes back to make David Otunga eat his words somewhere down the line. Side note: Otunga sucks.

The Ugly

• LayCool vs. Melina and Eve Torres - Awful. Hopefully the unified belt will get sent to Smackdown so I don't have to watch this slop every week.
• The Lack of JR - King and Cole gave him a shout out but I would like to think that the 900th episode of Monday Night Raw would be a good reason to give good ol' JR a token appearance. The man was a integral part of Raw throughout the years so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that all he got was a mention at the start of a throwaway tag team match.
• "Did you know that Raw has been on longer than <show name>?" - Okay, I think we all get it. Great to know that Survivor would have to be on for 45 more seasons or Jersey Shore will have to stay on the air until the 2080's to hit 900 episodes. Talk about what happened over the course of those 900 episodes a little bit more and forget about the fact that you've aired more episodes than every Star Trek series combined.

This was a pretty blah episode of Raw. It lacked the big event feel that the WWE has been able to create for other historic episodes of their flagship program. The only things that I enjoyed really had nothing to do with the actual in-ring action. The wrestling was poor and it really took back seat to Cole's constant shilling of the fact that this was the 900th episode of Raw. He must have said it OVER 9000 times. Tonight was really a disappointing effort. Hopefully we'll get something a bit more entertaining next Monday.