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Sheamus! ADR! Ricardo! Otunga! A Little More! World Heavyweight Championship!
Three big things happened on WWE Monday Night Raw (Sept. 3) which all directly affect the world heavyweight championship picture.
First, Sheamus busted out the Texas Cloverleaf in a match against Jack Swagger, bringing his total of finishers to five: Brogue Kick, Celtic Cross, Irish Curse, White Noise and now his version of the Texas Cloverleaf. It's certainly not a bad idea to give him a submission finisher and at least it's not as dumb as the STF, which John Cena currently uses. Hopefully, this means the modern-day Celtic Warrior is dropping some of his redundant finishing maneuvers.
Secondly, the "Great White" completely destroyed Ricardo Rodriguez via Brogue Kick. What's more, Ricardo was simply trying to save Alberto Del Rio by shoving him out of the way. Sheamus basically removed "Double R's" head from his body. The man was just trying to help his boss and friend, yet all the pale-skinned pugilist did was laugh and laugh and laugh. Meanwhile, Ricardo was lying there as if he were unconscious. Sheamus must be getting straight "A's" in his "Being John Cena" class.
Finally, the "Mexican Aristocrat" has hired David Otunga as his legal representative. This is absolutely brilliant. What does every rich rule-breaker need? A good Harvard-educated lawyer, that's what! Be it a Wall Street executive stealing your money, or "Big Business" trying to crush "the little guy", it's up to the smart attorney to keep their clients out of trouble. That's a life lesson right there, folks.
Why it's taken this long to finally add another dimension to Sheamus and Del Rio's feud is beyond me. The main event of SmackDown has been content to play the same song and dance week-in and week-out; with little over a week until Night of Champions, there's not that much time left to flush this angle out. Unless, of course, they are planning on extending this feud beyond the next pay-per-view (PPV).
Which would just be...really dumb.
At least they are trying to do something new, which is always appreciated. Adding Otunga to the mix in a legal capacity can only make this better. Let's see how far WWE allows him to run.
The rest of the show after the jump.
Layla! Kaitlyn! Eve! Botched Finishes! Mistaken Challengers! Divas Championship!
It's being rumored that it was Eve Torres, not Kaitlyn, who was supposed to be the number one contender to Layla's Divas Championship... which makes complete sense! Eve's presence in the angle has been absolutely awkward, but they are trying to keep her in the spotlight while still maintaining the integrity of the number one contendership. It's nice the Divas can have botches and have to book on the fly.
They're [almost] like real pro wrestlers!
Knowing what we know now, it's been pretty impressive how all the parties were able to play off the mistake. Hell, the entire feud has been much more interesting than it would have been if Eve had won as planned. At least this way, it gives some intrigue to the Divas division. Eve will most likely take away Kaitlyn's title match, or be inserted into a triple threat match at Night of Champions. Either way, it's nice to see a legitimate storyline for the women of WWE.
Ziggler! Orton! Showoff! Viper! Waiting for the Main Event!
It seems that Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton are going to go at each other while Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio clog the main event. Orton was able to pick up the pin last week (Aug. 31), while Ziggler got the cheap three-count on Raw. "The Showoff" even put "The Viper" on blast on WWE Download, a privilege normally held for Zack Ryder.
There's not much to the feud at the moment, but they are able to put on some damn good matches. Right now that's all they need to do; they can save all the storyline and promos for down the road. Hopefully we'll be able to see these two battling over the world heavyweight championship sooner rather than later.