Ray Carsillo gives his final prediction for the Super Bowl, talks about the possible Ryan Callahan trade between the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues, and discusses the recent events in the WWE. Welcome to Ray’s Man Cave!
Tag Archive: CM Punk
A not-so-Royal Rumble
It’s been a difficult transition from current-gen hardware to next-gen for a lot of the yearly sports franchises, but these titles seem to fall into one of two categories. Some series are taking the challenge head-on, while others are trying desperately not to rock the boat, with hopes of riding out whatever wave of momentum they’ve built up over the last seven years to survive their final current-gen entry.
WWE 2K14 falls in the latter category. Even taking events like a huge publisher change into consideration, it feels like the franchise is just ready for current-gen to be over and done with and is biding its time.
It’s not that WWE 2K14 is a bad experience. I still had a lot of fun with this year’s version of WWE’s annual gaming series, but a lot of its features and ideas seem stale, with little innovation in any of its modes. The same glitches and AI shortcomings that seem to pester the game year in and year out persist—Extreme Rules matches remaining counterfests where wrestlers just keep ripping whatever weapon they have out of each other’s hands and doing no real damage, players seeming to meld through the ropes instead of climbing over them, or character models looking like they’re floating off the mat when you go for the pin.
A perfect example of the lackadaisical approach taken to this year’s game is the WWE Universe mode. This option is so outdated that it still lists the Wednesday-night show as WWE Superstars, even though it’s now WWE Main Event and Superstars has been relegated to an Internet-only show on Friday nights. The only real addition to the mode this year is the Rivalry feature, where you can change storylines to force wrestlers to face each other—with varying stipulations—week in and week out. It’s really just a small customization feature that doesn’t do much for the experience as a whole–and serves to add more clutter to a user interface that’s already in desperate need of an overhaul.
Sure, it’s still interesting to create a character—or take control of one of your favorites—and put them through the paces of a year in the WWE and see if you can become top dog. But how about we expand this into NXT, the WWE’s developmental promotion? You could start as a rookie and really work your way up or learn new moves through a mentor, just like on the show. This could give us a chance to tell a much longer, more detailed story than we could before. And can we at least get the schedule of shows right? Yes, we can create our own, but let’s at least start from an accurate default.
While on the subject of creating things, I do have to say that while nothing’s really changed with the character, entrance, moveset, or arena-creator modes, nothing really had to, either. I can’t imagine these being any better than they already are, besides perhaps offering more options with greater detail. Hopefully, that will come with some of the added horsepower next year. The WWE series is known for having one of the best creator suites in the industry—and that, at the very least, remains in pristine condition.
Something that has seen some changes, however, is the story mode. Last year told the tale of the Attitude Era, while this year brings us 30 Years of WrestleMania. The major focus of this mode revolves around reliving 46 epic matches from three decades of the most dominant brand in wrestling, trying to pull off the same iconic moments that made these matches classics to begin with: Hogan bodyslamming Andre at Wrestlemania III, Stone Cold Steve Austin refusing to tap to Bret Hart in WrestleMania 13 (one of my personal favorites), all the way up to John Cena versus The Rock from just last year.
Hardcore wrestling fans will be able to recognize this is just an extension of last year’s mode, but instead of focusing on one specific time period (which also happens to be the shortest chapter here to prevent too much crossover), it draws from the WWE’s long history. It also conjures up a lot of memories of 2009’s WWE’s Legends of WrestleMania game—mostly early on—in regards to the matches chosen and the objectives given. It was like déjà vu; I had this constant feeling I’d already played half the mode before I even started it. However, it’s still tremendously fun to relive so many vintage moments, and it serves as a great learning tool for younger wrestling fans—or a trip down memory lane for older ones.
But there’s a lot more to 30 Years of Wrestlemania than just reliving the best matches of yesteryear. Another option in the mode is challenging “The Streak.” Here, you’re presented with two choices: Defeat the legendary Undertaker at WrestleMania, where his AI’s been amped up to near-impossible levels to offer you the truest test of your wrestling skills, or play as the Undertaker in the ultimate Gauntlet match against the entire WWE roster.
The Gauntlet match choice sounds much tougher than it is, though. Most combatants don’t really start to put up a fight until you’ve eliminated at least 25 guys, and the Undertaker recovers his health after every five. A score is assigned in either option, giving the entire mode a very arcade-like feel; it’s a nice change of pace from the rest of the simulation-heavy game. But unless you become obsessed with bettering your score, this mode sorely lacks any replay value. Even a difficult Undertaker can be countered after you learn his timing, and the Gauntlet match can take close to an hour for each runthrough of the roster, which is far too long for anything to be deemed truly “arcadey.”
WWE 2K14 is a decent entry into the series, but it lacks any changes that could help the franchise stay completely fresh and fun; this feels like a mailed-in effort before the advent of next-gen. The customization options we’ve come to know and love are still here to complement the most robust roster of old-school and current wrestlers yet. It just feels like the overall presentation and WWE Universe mode need to see the same spit-and-polish effort that goes into story mode every year.
| Developer: Yuke’s/Visual Concepts • Publisher: 2K Sports • ESRB: T – Teen • Release Date: 10.29.13 | |
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7.0
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30 Years of WrestleMania will be a fun stroll down memory lane for older, more diehard WWE fans. Otherwise, WWE 2K14 feels like a mailed-in effort before next-gen hits, especially as the WWE Universe mode starts to show its age.
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| The Good | 30 Years of WrestleMania is a great follow up to last year’s Attitude Era mode. |
| The Bad | WWE Universe mode is starting to show its age; same glitches we see every year. |
| The Ugly | Mae Young. Just because. |
| WWE 2K14 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360. | |
All the fallout from Survivor Series, including both CM Punk and Big Show retaining their respective titles and Team Foley going down in a blaze of glory, came to the forefront on Monday Night RAW as it went on the air from Dayton, Ohio.
Main Plot Overview: The biggest result of Sunday’s Survivor Series PPV, traditionally one of the most controversy laden events of the year, saw CM Punk miraculously retain the WWE Championship after three NXTers interfered and put Ryback through the announce table during the triple threat match. This led to one of the most over-the-top celebrations in WWE history as CM Punk’s title reign officially reached one year, only the eighth time in history that has happened.
Ryback, none too happy about being screwed over again however, decided to crash the party. But just when Ryback looked to feed his hunger, the three NXT upstarts appeared again and performed a Survivor Series encore, again putting Ryback through a table.
It also seems that John Cena is starting a feud with Dolph Ziggler and therefore being slowly worked out of the main plot for the first time in a while. More on that though later!
Match of the Night: I have to say that aside from the stupid AJ/Cena drama and Punk’s weekly gloating, last night’s RAW saw the best all around wrestling card in quite a while, making this a difficult decision. With push coming to shove though, I had to pick a PPV main event caliber match that was almost buried in the very middle of the show.
Continuing the rivalry of Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio in a fight to see who is truly the WWE’s “Apex Predator”, Del Rio and Orton were placed in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls Match. In a surprising call, and to probably hasten the pace of what can be a marathon match inducing stipulation, Del Rio quickly disqualified himself when he refused to stop using the ring post to smash Randy Orton’s arm.
Of course, this was in the hopes of weakening it to more easily lock in his patented armbar submission, which is exactly what Del Rio did to score the second point of that match, his first. Tied up at 1 fall apiece, Orton was in trouble with his arm devastated. But you only need one arm to land an RKO.
After Del Rio missed his Enziguri finisher and Orton countered a second armbar attempt into a pinning situation, Del Rio’s frustration was clear. So much so that he attempted to use Orton’s own RKO against him, but Randy countered it into an Irish Whip followed up by his vintage middle rope suspended DDT. After this, Orton hit the RKO himself and won in what was a spectacular show from both men and has me interested in a non-title rivalry for the first time in quite a while.
Promo of the Night: After AJ and Vickie had their typical spot where Vickie was trying to prove that AJ and John Cena were an item, finally the dam broke and AJ and John locked lips right there in the ring. But it wasn’t this moment that made this situation the Promo of the Week.
As AJ and John made out, Dolph Ziggler made his way to the ring and ambushed John. When the tides turned, Ziggler made his way up the ramp to escape and John attempted to follow, but on the way out the ring, it looks like Cena twisted his ankle. At first, I thought he might have been legitimately hurt as replays show John did indeed twist his ankle and you can’t really fake that.
Officials later claimed it was more of a knee injury, but here is why I do not think it was serious. If it had been, John’s night would’ve been over and he’d likely have gone to this hospital. Instead, AJ busted into the Men’s Locker Room and confronted Dolph. This is when it got good.
Dolph then proceeded to belittle poor AJ, even calling her a piece of trash. AJ then freaked and started smacking Dolph. Cena then busted in to break it up, but Dolph then kicked the “injured” knee of John Cena as the two proceeded to have one of the best backroom brawls we’ve seen on RAW in a while, even smashing each other through a bathroom stall. This conflict combined with Dolph’s amazing heel speech is what made this series of events the Promo of the Night.
Shocker of the Night: We have a Great Khali sighting! I suppose the WWE’s ratings in India have dipped as the only reason why you see the Punjabi Playboy is to boost international appeal, as he is the worst wrestler on the roster by far. So this was an easy Shocker of the Week for me because I can’t remember the last time I saw Khali “wrestle”.
Of course, he still didn’t really wrestle as all he did was hit Primo and Epico, his handicap match opponents, with his big fist once or twice and the match was over. At the very least the match gave us an excuse to see the amazing Rosa Mendes come to ringside again though.
Cheap Pop of the Night: With Mick Foley not around that much anymore, it’s hard to call what was the Cheap Pop of the Night as I do not recall anyone blatantly pointing out the WWE’s presence in Dayton, Ohio. Because of this, the Cheap Pop of the Night actually goes to CM Punk for his new “I’m a Paul Heyman Guy” t-shirt (available now on WWEShop.com of course!) that cheaply plugs his legendary manager. This isn’t to say it’s not an awesome shirt as I think I know exactly what I’ll be buying on Cyber Monday next week now, but it just goes to shop a pop doesn’t always have to be for the hometown crowd.
A close second was when Paul Heyman called out the WWE Universe for chanting “ECW” in prior weeks, but not really understanding what that meant as the current WWE audience could never handle the glory days of ECW brand wrestling, or him spinning tales of how he used to hang out with the legendary Bruno Sammartino when he was a boy.
Mick Foley has to make some changes to his Survivor Series team, CM Punk finds himself between a rock and a hard place, and the King returns in this week’s Sleeper Hold!
Main Plot Overview:
Long time no talk recap folks. Sorry for the delay, but it’s been a crazy time here at EGM with the insane rush of games coming in for the holidays. Things are settling down a bit now though and so I was able to relax and watch a little Monday Night RAW.
And boy, did a lot happen on RAW last night. Ryback got his revenge on the rogue referee that cost him the title at Hell in a Cell and decimated the poor fool. AJ Lee confronted Vickie Guerrero once again about her supposed affair with John Cena. And leading up the triple-threat Survivor Series main event where John Cena, CM Punk, and Ryback will face off for the WWE Championship, last night’s main event put Cena and Punk against each other in a singles non-title match that saw both men give it their all. At least until Punk tried to run away and then met Ryback, who was still very hungry after his short match with the rogue ref, halfway up the ramp. As Punk began to backtrack away from Ryback, he attempted to escape into the crowd, However, Cena caught him and brought Punk back into the ring to get the win before Cena and Punk then both grabbed the WWE title in a moment dripping with tension and obvious symbolism.
I don’t know who is going to win the WWE Title on Sunday, but I’d love for it to be Punk one more time to cap off his full year as the champ and move into sole possession of the 8th longest title reign in history. I’d also like to see what Ryback would do as champ and maybe even set him up to take on some other unstoppable monsters like The Big Show or Kane down the line. Basically, as long as it’s not John Cena because he’s actually been developing well over the past few months into someone I can at least stand and I think giving him the title now would unravel this all again.
Match of the Night:
There has been a heavy focus in recent months on the tag team division. And to help show off this resurgence, the first 8-man tag match I can remember seeing in quite some time took place as the teams of Rey Mysterio/Sin Cara and Justin Gabriel/Tyson Kidd took on the Primetime Players and Primo/Epico, showing off all four teams’ interesting styles of offense in the match.
The match started off at a normal pace with the heels in control, but once a couple of hot tags were made by the faces, business picked up. With as many high fliers as there were in the ring, it was no surprise to see guys like Sin Cara leap off the top turnbuckle to the outside or for Tyson Kidd to hit a hurricanrana when they got their chance, but the moves all seemed to happen one right after another and so the match had the fastest pacing I’ve seen in some time, especially from Rey Mysterio who many thought might have lost a step, once everyone got into a rhythm. The big highlight of the match, however, was back-to-back finishers with Mysterio’s 619 and Gabriel’s 450 splash on Darren Young to end the bout. All things considered, the quick pace, tight maneuvers, and over-the-top finish made this an easy choice for Match of the Night.
Promo of the Night:
In an outpouring of emotion from everyone in ring and from the WWE Universe, it was great when Jerry “The King” Lawler came down the ramp in hour two to take his headset back from Good Ol’ JR (Although it was great hearing JR again for these past nine weeks. I really wish Michael Cole would go away).
To hear Jerry talk about how his experience was like It’s a Wonderful Life and how much he appreciated the outpouring of love from everyone in the locker room and the WWE Universe was a special moment and I for one am thrilled King pulled through. Of course, the whole moment would go sour when CM Punk would crash the party and Paul Heyman would fake his own heart attack right in the middle of the ring.
But this special promo wasn’t done for then Mick Foley came shambling down to the ring to belittle Punk about how special it was that Jerry was okay. How it was a damn miracle he was there and that for a short period of time he was dead. It was the most emotional I had ever seen Mick Foley and I think even Punk was a little stunned, but he kept his cool and turned it back on Mick as he always does. As a whole though, this was easily the best moment of the night on RAW.
Shocker of the Night:
With the main event at Survivor Series changed to a triple threat match between Punk, Cena, and Ryback, Mick Foley had a gap in his Survivor Series team that needed to be filled. Leaving it up the WWE Universe, Santino Marella, Zack Ryder, and late ballot entry The Miz, who defected from Team Ziggler, the Universe decided shockingly for The Miz by a landslide. Miz admitted that he didn’t like Mick and Mick admitted he didn’t like Miz, but they both hated Ziggler more.
It also led to an interesting storyline developing with the Miz being forced to partner with Kane later that night in a tag match against Rhodes Scholars and Daniel Bryan becoming jealous. Where that may lead, I don’t know, but the whole scheme stinks of turning the Miz into a face with him teaming up with other faces for Survivor Series.
Cheap Pop of the Night:
The emotional rant of Mick Foley about how it was a miracle Jerry Lawler was there in Columbus was not a moment that I felt was cheap in any way. But it needs to be said that it would be a Foley moment if he didn’t shout out the location of RAW at least once an evening and before Mick started preaching to Punk, he couldn’t help but mention last night’s venue in Columbus, Ohio. Mick is nothing if not consistent and we love him for it, but he also gets the Cheap Pop of the Night.
A bionic redneck’s dream
I’ve been a wrestling fan for most of my life. It started with watching Hulk Hogan take on Andre the Giant with my grandfather. Then IRS came along and tried to make Tatanka pay his taxes. However, for a short time period I admittedly fell out of wrestling fandom. But with a crazed man from Long Island being flung from the top of a demonic structure and the rise of a certain bionic redneck, I was sucked back in and rarely strayed since.
These iconic moments in WWE history were just some highlights of what is now known as ‘The Attitude Era’. Stone Cold Steve Austin, D-Generation X, The Brothers of Destruction, and many other iconic men and women of that time period would cement their legacies as well as establish WWE as the dominate wrestling brand as they overcame WCW’s mid-90s advantage in the Monday Night Wars. And now, WWE 13 is having us relive some of those great moments like never before.
With cover boy CM Punk possibly marking the creation of a new era himself after last year’s infamous pipe bomb promo, it was only fitting that WWE 13 gave fans a brand new mode this year to replace past years’ story modes by using actual storylines from 1997-2000 and having players re-enact some of the most iconic matches of Stone Cold, The Rock, Kane, Undertaker, Mankind, HHH, HBK, and more. Not only does this give younger wrestling fans an overdue education, but it gives those of us who grew up in the era the most legitimate stories we’ve seen from the franchise since WWE No Mercy. It doesn’t hurt that it cranks the nostalgia factor up to 11 either, of course.
There are numerous other improvements to this year’s iteration of the WWE franchise though in terms of both presentation and game play. No, unfortunately not all of the hit detection and in-ring glitches we’ve almost become accustomed to were worked out. But besides these occasionally troublesome setbacks (its hard to suplex someone when they are cemented in the middle of the announcers table), there are new outside the ring features like ‘OMG!’ moments where you can sacrifice a stored finisher to spear a foe through the barricade or with super-heavyweights like Big Show and Mark Henry, actually smash the ring with a superplex.
Something the WWE franchise is known for, its creation features, has also seen marked improvements as additional layers and items have been added to wrestlers, like an individual layer for kick-pads on your shins. You can also now customize the stage and Titantron in Create-an-Arena, and even make your own Championship belt if you’re really old school and want to introduce something like the old AWA belt back into the mix. Altogether, this is amazingly the deepest creation suite we’ve seen yet.
There has also been a lot of fine-tuning in terms of the game play. Due to many matches from last year’s game seemingly ending much too quickly, many wrestlers health bars have been extended to help add some length to every time you step into the ring. This can sometimes lead to the precarious position of needing to hit a pair of finishers before your foe is in a weak enough state to the get the pin, but it definitely adds the desired length to matches. The counter system has also been tweaked, giving a larger window of opportunity for you to the hit the counter button in order to reverse your buddy’s maneuver. This allows many of the matches to take on a more natural feel as now even the most green of wrestling gamers can turn the tides should they be taking on a counter-happy veteran.
The online modes have also seen some major shifts as bots are now allowed into online matches meaning players no longer have to wait for six players to actually show up to do Elimination Chamber matches or the like. You won’t get any online experience in terms of moving up levels for beating a bot, but if you just want to have a match with some friends online and there aren’t enough for the match, this is a nice quick fix.
All things told it’s hard not to say this is the best WWE game of this console generation. Sure, there are still a few glitches, and the camera transitions aren’t as smooth as they could be, but when you consider everything that has been crammed onto one disc with the ‘Attitude Era’ mode, new matches like ‘I Quit’ and the King of the Ring tournament, the still stellar WWE Universe mode, the bevy of new customization features and improvements, and the high quality most of these improvements have been made with, if you are a wrestling fan this game is simply a must have.
SUMMARY: The bevy of unlockables, still stellar WWE Universe mode, even deeper customization features, and the nostalgia driven Attitude Era mode makes this the best wrestling game of this generation.
- THE GOOD: Attitude Era mode hits every right note for long-time WWE fans
- THE BAD: Still some seemingly ever-present glitches and hit detection problems
- THE UGLY: That it isn’t an option to have Good Ol’ JR call ALL the matches
SCORE: 9.0
WWE 13 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360.
CM Punk continues his unending quest for respect and not even Mr. McMahon would get in his way! All the details inside this week’s Sleeper Hold!
Main Plot Overview:
Monday Night RAW this week was one of the most adrenaline fueled, emotion driven episodes we had seen in quite some time, but that’s what happens when the Chairman of the Board is back in town. Yes, Mr. McMahon was present in Sacramento, CA, for his annual state of the WWE address. However, CM Punk would not let him finish since he felt that Vince McMahon, for the longest time, had been the most disrespectful one of all to Punk.
With a slap that no one would soon forget, Punk walked out of the ring laughing as Mr. McMahon writhed on the ground. But no one pushes Mr. McMahon around and gets away with it and with more venom and anger than we had seen probably in his entire feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin now more than a decade ago, McMahon said if Punk didn’t face him that night, he’d simply fire him. With an insane gleam in his eye, Punk gladly accepted.
And surprisingly, it was an interesting match. Heck, Vince put on a better match with Punk than John Cena has in half of the matches he’s had with Punk. At first, the WWE champ dominated the much older McMahon, but Vince doesn’t back down from a fight and when Punk thought his point had been made and turned his back, he made a vital error. The match then took on a somewhat old-school ECW vibe as Kendo sticks and announce tables soon became the theme of the match as the men battled and beat each other down. Finally though, Punk, with a pair of Kendo Sticks, wailed on Mr. McMahon’s back and it looked like he would be down for a while.
Then came Ryback.
Punk ran out of the ring though ‘like a scalded dog’ as JR so eloquently put it in his Oklahoma drawl, but there the injured, one armed John Cena came down to the ring and blindsided Punk, threw him into the ring, and Ryback got his last meal of the night. When he went to hit his finisher though, Punk wriggled out of his grasp and this time ran through the crowd. McMahon then drabbed the mic, his eye bloodied from the confrontation, and laid out an ultimatum for Punk. At Hell in a Cell he had two choices. Face John Cena for the WWE Championship. Or face Ryback for the WWE Championship.
Honestly, it’s clear that Cena is nowhere near 100% and that these Ryback interventions have been to try to build him up to Championship status in a short time. This ‘ultimatum’ is just another move by WWE to see how Cena heals after another week of rest and rehab. At this point though, I think Ryback versus Punk would make for a very interesting PPV match because Ryback is clearly a beast and the crowd loves him flaunting his power. Ryback would never come out victorious though because the ‘Punk is scared of Cena’ storylines are ripe for the picking once John is healthy again enough to continue his feud with CM Punk should Punk ‘choose’ Ryback.
Match of the Night:
There were some solid matches during this RAW. From Antonio Cesaro again dominating to Ryback being fed Epico and Primo and doing his maneuver on both men (yes, he put almost 500 lbs on his shoulders and walked around the ring carrying them). Of course, my favorite part of Epico and Primo is Rosa Mendes who seems to wear less and less now whenever she comes to the ring.
But no, these would not be our Match of the Night. In fact, hell no! As in Team Hell No versus Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio in a tag match was the winner. Kane and Daniel Bryan continued their winning ways after their odd mix of teamwork resulted in Kane choke slamming Dolph Ziggler (and Ziggler selling it very well as always) and getting the 1, 2, 3.
The best part of this match though was how it had a very old school tag team match feel with the heels dominating and isolating Daniel Bryan for a large chunk of the match before Kane got the hot tag and went crazy. And then we still saw glimpses of Team Hell No’s disfunction as the two would then tag each other in and out for the end of the match until finally Kane’s choke slam would prove to be the deciding factor. It was one of the better wrestled matches I’ve seen in a while and that’s a credit to all four combatants and it ended with a clean victory fitting of the faces that Kane and Daniel Bryan are becoming.
Promo of the Night:
I wanted to give this to possibly to Daniel Bryan and Kane arguing more backstage with special guest Larry King for when Daniel Bryan said that Kane looked like someone slapped him in the face with a Fruit Roll-Up, but one great line does not a promo make, no matter how funny it was.
No, and not really that surprisingly, it has to go to when CM Punk interrupted Vince during the State of the WWE address. It felt like they had wanted it to be more a Vince/Stone Cold promo of old, but Punk and McMahon went much darker and deeper than that and it felt more like the pipe bomb that Punk dropped a year ago as he started talking about how Vince held him back and didn’t know what to do with him. And then the slap was a great exclamation point as Punk then chastised those who cheered him because they were doing it only to be ironic. WWE has to be careful though because if they push Punk too hard with this heel arc, although he plays a great one, he’s getting dangerously close to ‘crazy Austin’ territory and all the work he’s done over the year could begin to unravel.
Shocker of the Night:
There really wasn’t much that was shocking on this episode of RAW beyond CM Punk, but in order to keep this from being dominated by Punk, I’m going to choose the Divas Championship match between Kaitlyn and Eve because it was actually well wrestled even if it was only a 5-minute match. Kaitlyn, still nursing her ‘injured’ ankle would finally cash in her Championship match as number one contender and dominated Eve for much of the match hitting some great maneuvers and even showing off some strength herself until said injured ankle gave way on an atomic drop.
Eve, ever the opportunist, would lock Kaitlyn into a painful looking submission maneuver that focused on the ankle (it looked like a cross between a figure four and an ankle lock) and Kaitlyn would have to tap out. But this was a rare women’s match that I enjoyed watching for the actual wrestling and not just the hot ladies in skimpy clothing. Definitely a shock to me.
Cheap Pop of the Night:
For some reason Larry King was on the show, promoting his new Hulu series I believe, and so a promo between him, Kofi Kingston and the Miz (looks like they’re finally going to give Kofi another singles push with a focus on the IC belt) erupted when the Miz demanded everyone sing him happy birthday.
Besides this though, there were two cheap pops in this segment. Larry King started it off by exclaiming his love for Sacramento and the Kofi did the same thing when he took the stage and the microphone. A good segment all around for Miz and Kofi as Kofi did some high-flying acrobatics off the stage and onto the Miz, but the pair of pops (which even the Miz pointed out) to get a rise out of the crowd for the pointlessness of Larry King was easily the Cheap Pop of the Night.
Main Plot Overview: Due to AJ slapping Paul Heyman the week before at his ludicrous marriage proposal, he brought up that she could be fired for that as she was explicitly warned weeks prior to never touch another wrestler or manager ever again. So, Heyman wished to insert himself into the GM picture. But soon after, Vickie Guerrero with Dolph Ziggler close behind, argued why she should be the new GM. Things went really crazy though when Kane and Daniel Bryan showed up, saying it was their faults to begin with for what they put AJ through and it wasn’t her fault.
Finally, AJ, now on probation as GM, would come to the ring and in order to settle it would put all four men in the ring in a tag team match. CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler vs Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan incase you missed that a couple weeks ago as well). Later on in the evening though, AJ would add the stipulation that she would be guest referee to make things extra spicy.
In the main even, Ziggler would leave Punk to fend for himself and Kane and Daniel Bryan would easily capitalize and send Punk reeling with a choke slam, further validating Team Hell No as a tag team and adding more fuel for whatever pipe bomb CM Punk will want to drop next week. On a side note, AJ looked phenomenal in her referee uniform, especially when she got down on the mat to count the 1, 2, 3. Just saying.
Match of the Night: In a match that was worthy of a PPV, Savior of the Masses Damien Sandow and Sheamus put together one of the best cable TV matches I’ve seen in a long time and serves as Sandow’s stand-out moment so far in WWE. Worthy of a title match, this non-title bout so the fight go all over as Sandow attempted to escape several times, but got pulled back in by Sheamus. But Sandow was merely catching his breath it seems as he did a masterful job of turning the tables on Sheamus again and again.
Even with his tag team partner Cody Rhodes at ringside, Sandow put on a legitimate show against the Great White with no interference from the Rhodes at all. Until the end at least, when Rhodes, who was only trying to help Sandow to his feet after a boot near the turnbuckle by Sheamus, received one half a Brogue Kick that knocked both men out and saw Sheamus victorious. Sandow and Sheamus is a bout that I would love to see again for a title shot down the line and hopefully WWE took notice of Sandow’s in-ring skill as both he and Rhodes should be pushed not only as a team, but individually as well.
Promo of the Night: With all the writers at WWE Headquarters going crazy waiting to see if John Cena will be able to wrestle at Hell in a Cell, new feuds need to be fueled and fast incase John can’t go and a new main eventer needs to be crowned. So, while celebrating ‘J.R. Appreciation Night’ in Oklahoma City, who is filling in of course for the still recovering Jerry Lawler, CM Punk decided to crash the show and put J.R. in his place. After belittling poor Jim Ross and making fun of Stone Cold Steve Austin for a little while, Jim finally had enough and began his exit up the ramp.
Then Ryback showed up. Much like last week when Mick Foley was helped by Ryback after Punk’s unwarranted assault, Ryback escorted J.R. back to the ring and stared down the WWE Champion until he left with Paul Heyman screaming ‘You get paid to fight!’ CM Punk of course carried this promo and made it worth while, but the possibility of putting Ryback over as a main eventer has much of the WWE Universe intrigued because many of us do not think Ryback is ready for such a major jump in air-time. But with him taking down more established competition like Tensai earlier in the evening, the WWE knows they may need to push him faster than they want to if Hell in the Cell is going to sell.
Shocker of the Night: One moment more so than any other in the evening had my jaw dropping. It was when Antonio Cesaro hit his Neutralizer onto Brodus Clay. Not only was it impressive that Cesaro basically dead-lifted the behemoth of a man that is the Funkasaurus, but that he held it there for several seconds before forcefully slamming him down to the mat for the win. It wasn’t the longest match of the night or the most impressive overall, but that one moment was stunning and I’m still shocked at Cesaro’s show of strength.
Cheap Pop of the Night: With it being ‘J.R. Appreciation Night’ in Oklahoma City, many would think that just having J.R. there doing commentary would be enough to mark it as our Cheap Pop of the Night. But because of CM Punk’s interruption, there was little Boomer Sooner magic going on. No, the Cheap Pop of the Night came during the ridiculous World Heavyweight Championship debate between Big Show and Sheamus where Sheamus hammed it up for crowd by noticably dropping the city’s name several times. Although the debate was really nothing but a time kill as Big Show left the ring instead of fighting the Great White in the end, Sheamus’s love of name-dropping earned him our Cheap Pop of the Night easily.
A little late this week due to the Labor Day hangover, but it wasn’t the best episode of RAW this week either as, although we all love CM Punk as much as the next guy, as you’ll see, it was a bit too Punk-centric for my tastes. So here is this week’s Sleeper Hold!
Main Plot Overview: Things kicked off big time on RAW as Punk ambushed Jerry Lawler and kicked him in the back of the head again. Lawler was so hurt, he would not take part in this episode of RAW as Punk continues his rampage looking for respect.
Punk could do no wrong in his hometown of Chicago though until he decided to skimp out on the Champion vs Champion match he had lined up against Sheamus by GM AJ Lee. Punk, claiming to take a personal day (after all, it was Labor Day).
Punk would not completely leave the arena since his Night of Champions opponent John Cena was still to be in action though and when Cena’s Falls Count Anywhere match with Alberto Del Rio went to the back room, Punk intervened and hit a GTS on Cena on the hood of a parked car. This gave Del Rio the win and we also then saw our Shocker of the Night shortly afterward.
Match of the Night: There wasn’t much going on this night in wrestling aside from CM Punk stealing the whole show, but one other rivalry that’s brewing is Dolph Ziggler vs Randy Orton and talk about putting on a show. These two guys are both some of the most technically sound wrestlers on the RAW roster and with each one hitting great spots, this match was a joy to watch. Although it ended on a classic heel move when Ziggler grabbed Orton’s tights, everything up to that point was terrifically tight and a shoe in for Match of the Night.
Promo of the Night: Just in order to break up the CM Punk love, we’re giving the Promo of the Night to the Kane/Daniel Bryan anger management sketches. They’ve been hysterical watching Bryan and Kane work out not only their personal issues with each other, but in general. Kane, of course, is angry because he’s the Devil’s Favorite Demon, his real dad being Paul Bearer, etc. And Daniel Bryan is just being angry at the WWE Universe. They also set up the hysterical ‘Hug It Out’ option, which the WWE voted for, but devolved into Kane wreaking havoc as always.
Shocker of the Night: Although it came in the final 15 seconds of the show, this was easily the most exciting moment of the night. After knocking out John Cena and helping Alberto Del Rio pick up a win, CM Punk got into a car and started driving away. But before pulling all the way away, the driver rolled down his window, and Paul Heyman stuck his head out. What this means for the WWE Champion and John Cena’s match at Night of Champions, we will have to wait and see until next Monday, but at least we have something to look forward to now.
Cheap Pop of the Night: Easily the Cheap Pop of the Night came during everytime CM Punk opened his mouth as he related everything to his Second City home of Chicago. Even when he stormed out of the arena, he expected his hometown crowd to understand as he related it to them taking the day off for Labor Day. So all night long, CM Punk’s lovefest with Chicago takes the Cheap Pop of the Night.
CM Punk’s quest for respect continued along with much more as RAW rolled into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week!
Main Plot Overview: After being kicked in the head by Punk the previous week on RAW, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler was the one searching for an apology. But instead, CM Punk only apologized for Lawler being what he considered a low standard for the WWE Hall of Fame. A man who never won the WWE Championship and never had a Wrestlemania moment. A man who Punk considers to act far too juvenile for his position in the WWE Universe and for that, Punk apologized. Seeing how furious that made Lawler, Punk challenged The King to a match that would Main Event the evening and with the WWE Universe voting on the stipulation of it being a cage match (tables and No DQ were also options).
To no one’s surprise, Punk demolished Lawler. But Punk was not done after making him tap to the Anaconda Vice. No, Punk locked himself and Lawler inside the cage and continued to pummel the Hall of Famer, demanding he call him the best in the world. As Lawler refused, Punk continued to drop elbows and knees into Lawler’s cranium until finally John Cena, the now official number one contender after AJ Lee decided for CM Punk before his Main Event match, came running down and yelled at the crew to lift the cage. When it did, Cena rolled in, chased Punk out, and RAW faded to black.
Match of the Night: Although John Cena wasn’t part of the Main Event match of the evening, he was in our best match of the night against The Miz in a non-title match. Just because the two needed some work I guess.
The lack of storyline aside, if you were looking for some solid in-ring action last night, this was the match to watch as the two wrestlers showed that they had worked in the ring several times before. Each hit very solid spots including reversing each other’s finishers into DDTs and other high impact maneuvers. It would finally be Cena though (of course), who would channel the power of his jorts and go SuperCena on Miz, hit his Five Knuckle Shuffle, and hoist Miz over his head and hit an Attitude Adjustment to end the match by getting the 1, 2, 3.
Promo of the Night: It was very tempting to put Punk’s belittling of Jerry Lawler as the top promo once again, but instead, as scripted as it may have been, I think there was a few heartfelt moments there, and so HHH’s seeming goodbye to the WWE Universe, was my Promo of the Night.
With lines like ‘Thank you for letting me play the game’ and how hard a pill it is for any wrestler to finally decide to call it quits, I think HHH’s speech gave some interesting insight actually to the inside of a wrestler’s mind before he hears his music, steps through a curtain, and runs down that steel ramp all with the idea of entertaining people in mind. It was a nice moment, and for that, we thank you again HHH.
Shocker of the Night: This was a difficult call as there really wasn’t anything shocking about last night’s RAW, so this week we’re looking at something that was just a bit more out of character.
A very solid tag match between the team of Randy Orton and Sheamus vs Alberto del Rio and Dolph Ziggler would be won by Orton and Sheamus as for once Orton worked as a solid teammate and helped Sheamus in his time of need.
As chaos ensued outside the ring between the ref and Alberto Del Rio, Ziggler, looking to take advantage of the distraction grabbed his Money in the Bank briefcase and looked to strike Sheamus down with it. In an unusual twist of character though, Orton jumped into the ring and wrestled the briefcase from Ziggler and then performed a signature backbreaker on the Show-Off. This set Sheamus up to hit a brilliant Brogue Kick and the two faces walked away victorious. Not the most shocking of moments, but definitely out of character for the typically loner-type that is Randy Orton.
Cheap Pop of the Night: Last year, when R-Truth made his way to Wisconsin, he was definitely not in his right mind (well, even less so than he currently is) and even the likes of Michael Cole immediately got on his case when he confused Milwaukee and Green Bay. This led to a chorus of boos the likes of which has rarely been seen for even the most despised of heels.
But, looking to turn a positive into a negative, this time around R-Truth blamed the mishap on Little Jimmy pranking him last year. So when he grabbed the microphone and announced to Little Jimmy that he wouldn’t be fooled again and was well aware that he was in Milwaukee, there could have been no other moment that we picked as our Cheap Pop of the Night. Especially as the ensuing ‘Yes’ chant led to a count out win for Truth after Daniel Bryan went berserk and started arguing with the crowd again.
After an eventful Summerslam PPV, the WWE found itself in Fresno, CA, the site of RAW episode number 1004, to witness the fallout of the biggest event of the summer.
Main Plot Overview: CM Punk continued his quest for respect last night and in the process earned the right from GM AJ Lee to name his number one contender for Night of Champions and to the delight of the WWE Universe, Punk wanted to name John Cena, but one condition. And that was that John had to admit CM Punk was the best wrestler in the world.
When John refused though, after a long tirade about how important it is to always believe in yourself and that no matter how many times you fall down you need to get back up, and a bunch of other trivial self-help garbage, the title picture remained muddied. CM Punk, still looking for that respect, then demanded Jerry Lawler, the man who said Punk turned his back on the WWE Universe, offer him an apology and say the same thing. Although Lawler did apologize, he refused as well to say that Punk was best in the world, and thus got what he deserved. A kick upside the head by Punk.
It’ll be interesting to see how this long, drawn out story goes and why the WWE feels the need to insert Lawler into this shenanigans (now dubbed Minister or Propaganda by Punk), but as long as CM Punk remains champion, as he has now for nine months and counting, things will definitely remain interesting.
Match of the Night: Quite honestly, as is typical of RAW as it shakes off the post-PPV hangover, many of the matches were very one-sided, not clear-cut, or just plain not interesting. There were a couple of contenders for the Match of the Night though.
The Divas #1 Contendership Battle Royale just because of all the ladies being in the ring at once. Randy Orton vs Alberto Del Rio was actually very enjoyable for the most part until the ending. But the match that stood out above all others was the Dolph Ziggler vs Chris Jericho rematch of Summerslam, with the stipulation that if Ziggler lost, he’d lost his MITB briefcase, and if Jericho lost, he’d lose his job.
This match had the great pacing and top-notch technical acumen that we saw the night before during the PPV, but this time there was actually something of worth on the line (even though if you follow Jericho at all, you knew he was going to lose because he’s about to start touring with Fozzy, his band, once again). The match started off with Ziggler coming out of the gates on fire, not wanting at all to relinquish his briefcase, but Jericho started hitting a few great spots including both an axe handle smash and missile drop kick off the top rope. When he would go for his patented lionsault though, things would go awry as Ziggler countered with a pair of knees to the gut, followed by his Zig Zag to end it. Great pacing and tight wrestling all around made this an easy pick for Match of the Night.
Promo of the Night: This was an easy one as RAW kicked off with none other that Mr. Paul Heyman and his client Brock Lesnar. The pair were coming down to the ring to obviously gloat after their huge win over HHH at Summerslam where Brock ‘broke’ HHH’s arm and made one the WWE’s most resilient fighters tapout.
But not only did they gloat, but Heyman, in classic feel fashion, deemed Brock the new ‘King of Kings’ and therefore the entire WWE Universe must bow down now to Brock Lesnar. The pure intensity on Heyman’s face, while Brock danced around in one spot like he always does like he’s about to hit someone, as he made this proclamation was absolutely a joy to watch and I recommend you check out the video of it over at wwe.com if you can find it.
The best part of the whole promo though may have been when they called Scott Armstrong down to the ring and Heyman told the referee to hurry up because it was live TV (of course, he may have been taking his time because they wanted to make sure they could fill three hours again), and then Lesnar got right in the referee’s face, who was told by HHH to let the two fight, and Lesnar said ‘Good job’. Armstrong then ran away before he wet himself. Absolutely brilliant way to kick the show off.
Shocker of the Night: The Shocker of the Night didn’t come in a promo or a match announcement, it came in an actual match when AJ decided it best for Kane to tag with Zack Ryder against Daniel Bryan and The Miz. This comes just a few months after Zack Ryder’s big push and feud against Kane where Kane literally push Ryder off the stage in a wheelchair and tried to do…things…with his girlfriend of the time, Eve.
Just as shockingly though was the two seemed to be working well together until Daniel Bryan, the latest target of Kane’s wrath, entered the ring against the Big Red Monster and Kane was ready to get revenge for his upset loss at Summerslam. Daniel Bryan would have no part of it though and ran straight out of the ring, through the crowd, and out of the arena, resulting in a countout win for Kane and Ryder.
Luckily, things resumed some sort of normalcy when in his rage at having lost Daniel Bryan a second time, Kane took his rage out on Ryder, delivering a Tombstone Piledriver that was originally intended for Daniel Bryan the night before.
Cheap Pop of the Night: During the Cena tirade about how important it is for someone to believe in him/herself, he kept dropping little facts about Fresno, CA, from their location to their football team and had the crowd eating out of his hand. Considering how polarizing John is typically amongst WWE fans, this was a rare moment where it seemed he had 100% of the folks in attendance behind him, even if he had to kiss their butts to do so. Therefore, it was with ease to name John Cena’s little self-help speech about Fresno the Cheap Pop of the Night.
RayCarsilloWrites.com 