Tag Archive: wwe


The Sleeper Hold – Episode 8

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August 8, 2012

The 25th anniversary of Summerslam is right around the corner and with the card only half-booked, it would be interesting to see how storylines continued to develop before heading into one of the most anticipated PPVs of the year.

Note: Due to EGM’s presence at Gamescom next week, there will be no Sleeper Hold until the week following Summerslam.

Main Plot Overview: CM Punk is tired of being disrespected and confronts AJ at the top of RAW to demand that the main event at Summerslam no longer be a triple-threat match as he can lose the belt without even being pinned or submitting. AJ does not care though, looking fantastic in an all-white power suit (have I mentioned before on this how much I love her?) and continues to supposedly disrespect Punk by making the main event of RAW John Cena vs Daniel Bryan in a warm up match for the two before Summerslam (the Big Show and Randy Orton were also in action). Punk demanded a match though and so AJ said it wasn’t up to her, but the WWE Universe as they got to vote to see if Punk would face Kane, Rey Mysterio, or The Miz (the two not picked faced off later that night, in this case being Kane and Miz).

Later in the evening, after the brilliant main event match (more on that in a bit) Punk would continue his gradual heel turn as after Big Show again stormed the ring and John Cena went for an AA, Punk pushed the two of them again. Punk then talked about how he felt he was being walked all over and that part of the reason is his fault, as Cena pointed out in an earlier promo, and so it was no more Mr. Nice Guy from CM Punk. The show then ended with Punk looking to do more damage to the two men in the ring, but Big Show popped up and knocked out both Cena and Punk with a pair of WMD punches, which basically is just to instill doubt in people’s minds that Punk may not walk out of LA the champ.

Match of the Night: I was pleasantly surprised that the best match of the night was actually the main event. Nothing else was particularly special, although the CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio and Christian vs Alberto Del Rio matches had some very good moments.

Yes, amazingly, the John Cena vs Daniel Bryan match was the match most worth watching last night as Bryan carried Cena with a match that saw several finishers countered into submission maneuvers, submission maneuvers countered into finishers, high flying moves off the ring apron, and Daniel Bryan’s continued descent into madness as he tore up ‘YES!’ signs in the crowd and even got into shouting matches with some of the more vocal members of the WWE Universe.

No surprise that Cena was put over in this match with Summerslam less than two weeks away and him in the WWE title match, but Daniel Bryan continued to impress with his in-ring skills, including a flying headbutt clear across the entirety of the ring, Sure, Cena hit his few patented maneuvers, but see Daniel Bryan work with him though the match was a thing of beauty and it actually made so you couldn’t look away as you didn’t know what was going to happen next.

Promo of the Night: Although it was the shortest promo of the night, when CM Punk knocked over Cena and Big Show and grabbed the microphone after Cena’s main event match, the venom he spewed for the next minute solid was spectacular. With shades of the anger he exhibited when he dropped his infamous pipe bomb last year, Punk’s monologue called out everyone around him, including Jerry Lawler, and talked about how important the WWE Championship really is and that the WWE Universe did not truly understand what went with carrying that belt around.

The promo was also critical as it took another step towards Punk’s heel turn, even though much of the crowd still agrees with Punk and so he is in the murky ‘anti-heel’ phase now where he may be mad all the time and he might take some cheap shots (although he legitimately beat Mysterio earlier in the evening), he makes good points and is still one of the best wrestlers in the WWE, making a strong portion of the fan base able to forgive some of the things he says and does. And for that single minute there, backed up by the pure rage that Punk holds at bay, many of us hoped Punk wouldn’t stop talking and RAW would end on another of his rants.

Shocker of the Night: This was a difficult one in that there wasn’t really much to be shocked by over the course of the night. But if we had to choose something, it would probably be a couple of things in the CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio match. The big shocker here was that Rey Mysterio hit his patented 619, but since the WWE didn’t want the champ to look weak against a random opponent, and so Punk could keep yelling ‘Best in the World!’, Mysterio supposedly got greedy and Punk countered Mysterio’s high-flying maneuver follow-up to the 619 and was able to capitalize for the win.

Also just as shocking was that Mysterio looked like he was dressed up as The Riddler from Batman Forever as he was wearing all white with a big green question mark in the middle of his chest. And I thought I was a big comic book fan.

Cheap Pop of the Night: Alberto Del Rio made the mistake earlier in the evening of calling AJ ‘crazy’ and in doing so prompted her fury, putting Del Rio in a match against Christian, that also could have been a Match of the Night contender had it not ended cheaply with a distraction by Ricardo Rodriguez. After the match was over though, with Del Rio victorious, he was shocked to see Sheamus on the Titantron, with Del Rio’s keys to his custom Ferrari. Sheamus then proceeded to talk about how he was going to see how San Antonio (the location of last night’s RAW) treated him and in doing so got thunderous applause from the crowd.

It was humorous to see Sheamus TOUTing his escapades the entire evening throughout San Antonio, continuing the cheap pops, but the best part of the night was when he brought back a filthy Ferrari that Ricardo then had to clean up. But for this blatant imagery and constant mentioning of San Antonio, Sheamus gets our Cheap Pop of the Night.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 7 – The San Fernando Valley Screw Job

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August 4, 2012

Before we get into how AJ Lee did as GM (aside from look amazing in her power suit, although I definitely prefer the plaid two-piece), I need to talk about the San Fernando Valley Screw Job. This is basically what happens when a cable service provider (Time Warner) has a monopoly over a particular area of the country, (where I live in the valley), and whose service goes out constantly. I watch maybe five shows on TV, with Monday Night RAW being one of them, and to lose nearly 60 minutes of this show for no good reason drives me nuts. So despite their best efforts to clearly sabotage The Sleeper Hold this week on EGMNOW.com, I will continue onward with the two hours of the show I was able to see, plus piece together via illegal YouTube clips.

Main Plot Overview: The road to Summerslam continued to heat up last night as John Cena and the Big Show squared off at the command of AJ to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship. CM Punk came down for the main event and joined Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole on commentary, which he dominated with his expert analysis and quick wit, before being bowled over by Big Show and Cena when the fight carried outside the ring.

In his rage, Punk interfered with the match and took both men down and due to the disqualification proclaimed there was no number one contender because both men were losers. AJ quickly squashed this unofficial ruling though and deemed them both winners and therefore the WWE Championship match at Summerslam was now a triple threat match between Punk, Cena, and Big Show, which was expected. The only question now is whether they can continue this three way feud all the way to Royal Rumble in order to have a Fatal 4-Way match with The Rock involved.

In other news that will definitely shake-up Smackdown on Friday nights, and thankfully help with the awful broadcast team there, Booker T has been named Smackdown’s new GM according to WWE.com.

Match of the Night: After confronting AJ Lee in her office, Daniel Bryan wanted some answers for her leaving him at the altar. AJ explained that she knew Daniel was full of it after seeing insane asylum orderlies backstage, thinking Daniel was going to have her committed once they were legally wed. So AJ was going to have Daniel take on Sheamus that night in a non-title match, with the WWE Universe deciding the stipulation. And we wanted to see a street fight.

By no means was this the best street fight you’re likely to see from the WWE. But the liberal use of kendo sticks, the steel steps, and a chair wedged between turnbuckles helped to liven up what was a very tight match technically from both men. No surprise, Sheamus emerged victorious as he pummeled Daniel Bryan and then laid him out on the steel steps in the ring with a Brogue Kick for the victory.

Another contender for this was the Jericho/Christian vs Ziggler/Miz tag match, but unfortunately my cable provider was nowhere to be seen and so I missed it and I can only call them as I see them folks. Kind of like an easily distracted WWE referee.

Promo of the Night: The night got off to a bang as CM Punk came to the ring to defend his actions last week on RAW when he clotheslined The Rock. Punk specifically called out Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler for saying Punk turned his back on the WWE Universe when he did that.

So Punk got right in Lawler’s face and sat Indian style on the announce table right in front of Jerry and explained that RAW should end every episode on the WWE Champion because it is the most prestigious belt in the business and therefore whoever holds it should hold the WWE Universe in his hand. Punk never turned his back on anyone. He was simply putting The Rock in his place for trying to steal the spotlight that Punk clearly earned. And I have to agree with him there. The show should end every night on the WWE Champ instead of John Cena and whatever ridiculous feud he’s stuck in that night. And it should definitely not end on The Rock will most likely lose at the Royal Rumble as he is clearly not ready to do RAW on a weekly basis.

So, this severe tongue lashing from Punk, directed right at Jerry Lawler, and the subsequent calling out by the Big Show, which just led to AJ making the main event announcement of the evening, was clearly the promo of the night.

Shocker of the Night: The only reason why this was Shocker of the Night was because for once Brodus Clay got jobbed instead of doing it to someone else. Damian Sandow came down to the ring, proclaiming himself a martyr, sacrificed for the people by DX the previous week and so in an attempt to bring culture back to the WWE Universe, he was going to start with Brodus and ridiculous dance-off he was having with Vickie Guerrero.

Honestly, I’m glad something stopped Vickie because she continued to be one of the most annoying figures in the WWE. But I would’ve preferred if Sandow and Clay had an actual match instead of Sandow sucker punching Brodus and then working the big man’s ‘injured’ knee. Maybe we will get that fight later on down the road, but as it was for last night, I was definitely surprised to see that Sandow wasn’t getting jobbed by Clay, but sort of did it the other way around.

Cheap Pop of the Night: The one-man band Heath Slater came out and talked about getting his WWE career back on track. Instead of facing off against a legend though, he faced off against a Legend Killer. That’s right, the crowd went crazy when Randy Orton made his return to RAW and quickly hit all his signature moves, much like the legends did in previous weeks on Slater, and finished off the one-man band with a thunderous RKO. Not only was it an easy win for Randy and a chance to get him back in front of the WWE Universe, but it definitely got the crowd fired up and earned out Cheap Pop of the Night.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 6

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July 27, 2012

It was RAW’s 1000th episode, and unfortunately the WWE still can’t find a way to work some solid wrestling into the show even at three hours long now. Although I understand that it was a bit of a celebration, and hopefully things will pick up a bit next week, I can’t forgive the blatant extra advertising and time wasted pandering to the WWE Universe. As a whole, those of us who grew up in the ‘Attitude Era’ had a few extra laughs and it was nice to see legends like Bret Hart again. All in all though, this was a monumental waste of time and I fear for the future of Monday Night RAW’s ability to entertain us.

Main Plot Overview: The big shake-up in the main plot of the show was The Rock re-inserting himself into the WWE Championship picture, proclaiming he has been promised a title match at The Royal Rumble in January. Of course, with that still being six months away, the title can change hands several times potentially, with the first time being that night with John Cena cashing in his MITB contract.

Not surprisingly though, the match was interfered with by The Big Show and Cena became the first man to ever win his MITB contract title match, but not the title as a title cannot change hands via outside interference. The most infuriating thing about this match though was the sad attempt by WWE to possibly turn CM Punk heel, as he did what everyone else in the world would do and tried to capitalize on the opportunity afforded him by The Big Show. It’s not good for a face to win like a heel though, so this move likely means Punk is turning his back again on the people, especially after he clotheslined The Rock during his People’s Elbow on The Big Show.

Match of the Night: In three hours of programming, the WWE put on two good matches. The first was a 6-man tag match between Sheamus/Sin Cara/Rey Mysterio and Jericho/Dolph Ziggler/Alberto Del Rio. The match of the night though was the other good match in Christian vs The Miz for the IC belt.

Marking the 66th time the title was defended on MNR (average one defense every 15 weeks on the show), Christian came out with a flurry against the Miz, quickly taking to the air and hitting moves like missile dropkicks and crossbodies. But Miz would counter often and Christian would be unable to hit The Kill Switch. Instead, the Miz would finally get his chance and would take advantage, hitting the Skull-Crushing Finale and capturing the IC belt.

This was significant not only due to a major belt changing hands, but because this completes the career Triple Crown for the Miz who was a former WWE and US Champion. It also shows WWE’s commitment to insert the Miz right back into some decent storylines after some time away by giving him this storied mid-tier belt.

Promo of the Night: After the failed wedding of Daniel Bryan and AJ (more on that shortly), Daniel Bryan threw a tantrum of epic proportions. And CM Punk came down to the ring to gloat. Daniel Bryan didn’t take too kindly to this and proceeded to proclaim himself the greatest of all-time.

The Rock then had issue with this and came down to the ring to not only tell the people about The Royal Rumble, but to put Daniel Bryan in his place. After putting together a rhyme about how Daniel Bryan looks like something out of Lord of the Rings and is nothing but a glorified Oompa Loompa, the Rock gave Daniel Bryan a present. A Rock Bottom. Seeing the Rock rattle off an old-school promo like that was very enjoyable and so it is no surprise to see The Rock take home something he would have often back in his heyday, and that is The Promo of the Night. 

Shocker of the Night: Shortly before Daniel Bryan’s tantrum, he was the happiest guy in the world, as he was about to marry AJ (a lucky guy indeed). But like most weddings staged in a WWE ring, all was not well. And so the shocker came when we found out when AJ was saying ‘yes’ to someone else. Specifically, Mr. McMahon. But as Mr. McMahon explained to Daniel Bryan, it was a business proposition she was agreeing to. AJ was to be the new GM of MNR, to which I broke out with a ‘yes’ chant of my own! Our lovely geek goddess then proceeded to skip around the ring in her usual care-free demeanor as Daniel Bryan, with special guest reverend Slick, were left standing in shock in the middle of the ring. This is one of the few reasons I can’t wait for RAW episode 1001 now. 

Cheap Pop of the Night: The night started off with a bang as promised, as DX came out to the ring to kick things off. I was a bit disappointed though because it was only HHH and HBK and I remember when DX was actually a much larger stable than these two WWE mainstays. But I should learn not to doubt DX as they always have something up their degenerate sleeves and after some humorous banter between HBK and HHH, almost all the rest of the crew came out. X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn, in a military jeep, came rolling out to ringside and the gang was back together and for the first time in a while, I legitimately cheered at the TV while watching MNR. And it only got better as they hit all their catch phrases and even embarrassed Damien Sandow, who is definitely turning heads as a heel and passed his initiation as one after he was promptly disposed of by DX.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 5

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July 20, 2012

With Money in the Bank now behind us and Dolph Ziggler and John Cena the holders of the most coveted contracts there are in the WWE, things began to actually settle down a little as we move forward to next week’s monumental 1000th episode of Monday Night RAW. Several plot lines were tied up as several new ones started. And others took interesting twists in the hopes of making next week’s RAW the most historic episode ever. But before next week gets under way, we needed to get through this week first!

Main Plot Overview: After CM Punk’s successful title defense at Money in the Bank, he came out to tell the folks in Vegas that it was a year ago at that venue when he dropped his infamous pipe bomb and has reigned as WWE Champ for over eight months now. Interrupted by the Big Show though, Punk was reminded that John Cena can cash in his Money in the Bank at any time and if Show were to knock Punk out that evening in their main event match, that would be an awesome time to do it.

Flash forward to the end of the night and many thought that is just what John would do after Big Show DQ’d himself by hitting the referee and continued to swing away on Punk. Mind you, if this match had carried to a natural conclusion instead of a build up to next week, it was a strong contender for Match of the Night. Anyway, those of us who knew better that John would not cash in the briefcase because he is so honorable and righteous and…

…

Sorry, I couldn’t finish that last sentence without throwing up in my mouth a little. I’m good. I’m good. Back on track. But yeah, Cena instead gave Punk a week’s notice that at the 1000th episode of RAW the main event would be him and Punk for the WWE Championship, setting himself up as possibly the first man to lose his title match after winning his Money in the Bank contract match.

Match of the Night: This was very tough as few of the matches that went on were actually worth our time. The mixed tag match between AJ/D-Bryan vs Eve/The Miz was solid, but it was predictable for the most part and had only a couple of nice spots. The match that really impressed me, but wasn’t technically a match since the bell never officially rang, was Ryback vs. Jack Swagger.

First, thank you WWE for finally starting to push Ryback against real competition as I’m tired of watching him powerbomb some 130lb weaklings in a ‘handicap’ match. At Money in the Bank he had a handicap match against real wrestlers in Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins and then tonight he had some really good spots with Swagger.

Swagger started things off quickly by hitting Ryback as soon as he got into the ring. After tossing him around for a while and even hitting the Swagger-bomb for the first time in nearly forever, he tried to perform the ankle-lock. Twice. But Ryback countered each time and continued to show off his impressive power as he performed a TRIPLE powerbomb on Swagger before starting his chant ‘FEED ME MORE’ once again. Most impressive.

Promo of the Night: Another night of solid promos from several folks, but again Dolph Ziggler stole the show when he decided to ‘show-off’ his microphone skills talking about he’ll be the greatest undisputed world heavyweight champion of all-time. Better than The Rock, Stone Cold, and Bret Hart. Then Chris Jericho showed up.

But for the first time I can ever remember, Jericho didn’t say a word as Ziggler belittled him, saying no one even remembers the last time he won a big match as he’s been on the losing streak of a lifetime. And basically, he’s lost it. After several long minutes of being verbally broken down by Ziggler, it was like Jericho’s eyes started to glaze over…and then he hit a Codebreaker and walked out of the ring. I don’t know if it’ll actually lead to anything, but it was a great job by both men as Ziggler continued to cement himself as a great mic man and Jericho’s presence only helped intensify the entire promo.

Shocker of the Night: For once, AJ and the drama that follows her is no longer the shocker of the night although her and Daniel Bryan getting married next week was a close second. No, the shocker of the night was the long awaited return of the master of the 619, Rey Mysterio.

After Zack Ryder served as a jobber to let Alberto Del Rio take his frustration out on after blowing another title match against Sheamus at Money in the Bank, Rey Mysterio came back after almost a year ‘hiatus’ caused by Del Rio supposedly injuring Mysterio’s arm. To a huge ovation, Mysterio and Del Rio went back and forth for a short while before Del Rio set him up for and hit the 619 to start a new rivalry between the wrestlers. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here as both are very strong in the ring as well as to see how crisp the now 37-year old Mysterio is after such a long break.

Cheap Pop of the Night: What will likely be the last time this happens, Heath Slater took on another WWE Legend. Of course, the legitimacy of him as a legend as much as his bloodline being legendary is questionable, but the return of Rikishi was a nice moment for sure.

As has been the motif the past several weeks, Rikishi dominated and hit all his signature moves including the Stink Face as Slater did a nice job of putting an older wrestler over. The nicest thing about this moment though was when the lights went down and The Usos, who happen to be Rikishi’s twin sons, popped out and danced with their poppa. Definitely that moment alone made this worthy of the cheap pop of the week.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 4

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July 9, 2012

This week’s Monday Night RAW saw the love triangle that has been AJ, Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk start to sink the champ and the number one contender. John Cena, Chris Jericho, Kane, and the Big Show are also starting to get into each other’s heads as MITB is right around the corner. Teddy Long was this week’s Interim GM and he put on the quite the show. Quick note folks: EGM will be down at San Diego ComicCon all next week and so The Sleeper Hold will be put on hold for a week. Thanks for understanding.

Main Plot Overview: With an opening promo that really set the two main storylines off and running, it’s hard not to start getting excited for MITB. Although John Cena continued to walk the company line and turn all negatives into positives, Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan saved the day with a hysterical catchphrase battle with Jericho obviously winning as he has a much fuller repertoire than D-Bryan.

CM Punk also came to the ring though and talked about the irony of AJ being the special guest referee for his and D-Bryan’s MITB WWE Championship match, but soon Kane and Big Show joined the fun before all hell broke loose.

Clearly, the WWE knows the WWE Championship has the best players involved right now so by putting over both Punk and Bryan’s blossoming rivalry along with re-inserting John Cena and his rivalry with Big Show and Jericho and Kane into the picture, this is the reason why we continue to watch wrestling. And the best part is how AJ finds a way to always steal the show!

Match of the Night: In terms of match quality, this was one of the weaker RAWs we’ve seen in a while. Most matches ended in only a few minutes or didn’t even get started due to classic heel maneuvers. It was good to build characters up for the MITB PPV again, but if you were looking for any kind of wrestling, this definitely wasn’t the night to watch.

But if I had to choose, I was pleasantly surprised actually by the Mixed Tag Team match between the odd team of Sheamus and AJ taking on Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler. Obviously, this was mostly a match between Sheamus and Dolph as the two put on a really good show hitting very solid spots. If they had put on this good a match at No Way Out, I would’ve walked away a much happier camper than I already was from that PPV. The end was also solid as after Sheamus Brogue Kick’d Dolph out of the ring (just after Dolph did the cowardly heel move of tagging in Vickie), AJ came in, pulled off a couple of nice moves including her Daniel Bryan-esque kick to the head finisher and got the pin.

Promo of the Night: As good as the opening promo was, especially with Jericho and Bryan trading catchphrases, and a later catty one between Eve and AJ that was surprisingly solid, the clear winner for this is Paul Heyman’s interview via satellite with Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler.

Heyman’s big announcement was that Brock Lesnar is waiting for the 1,000th episode of RAW to announce if he will participate in Summerslam (need to fill those three hours pretty badly now). But it wasn’t just this announcement, it was that he declared he had figured HHH out. That HHH wanted to be destroyed at Summerslam by Lesnar because then HHH could be a hero, the king carried off the battlefield on his shield and placed in the corporate suit he has desired for so long without losing any face with the WWE Universe or the wrestlers in the locker room. And he did with that classic Heyman venom that makes you appreciate how good a heel he truly is.

Shocker of the Night: Tyson Kidd’s quick upset of Tensai was in the running for this, but again this seemed to just be a way to build up hype and conflict between participants in MITB. But it was the frontrunner until the very end of the night.

At this point, AJ’s continued interference in matches isn’t something new or surprising. In fact, it’s getting close to the point of irritation now (I still love her though) and hopefully this storyline will start to wind down after the results at MITB. But how she decided to interfere in the CM Punk and John Cena vs. Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan tag-team main event of the night was absolutely brilliant.

After all four men entered the ring for the standard chaos that ensues in these kinds of tag matches, Cena and Jericho fought each other up the ramp and out of sight. Punk and Bryan, the legal men, then put on a great individual effort with quick pacing, a few great spots with counters and high flying maneuvers, and then AJ made her appearance. When ignored by the two terrific tacticians in the ring though, she resorted to desperate measure and pulled out a table. Maybe like the Dudley Boys of yesteryear, she’s got a thing for wood. Anyway, she climbed to the top turnbuckle and made it seem like she was going to put herself through the table. Finally, Punk and Bryan’s attention was got and they moved over to convince her it wasn’t worth it. When in the right place, AJ then pushed them both through the table, started laughing maniacally, and started a ‘Yes’ chant all her own. My jaw dropped as my fellow New Jersey AJ native pulled one over on the WWE Champ and number one contender. Wow.

Cheap Pop of the Night: Continuing the trend leading up to the 1,000th episode, Heath Slater has been taking on WWE Legends. And for a good while I thought this would be the week the streak of this being the ‘Cheap Pop of the Night’ would be broken as Doink the Clown returned to a WWE ring…unfortunately. Lucky for Heath though as he finally broke his losing streak and emerged victorious. The cheap pop came though when DDP, Diamond Dallas Page, walked down to the ring to congratulate Heath on the win. After a hearty handshake, not surprisingly, DDP then hit the Diamond Cutter and the crowd erupted.

Honestly, DDP looked in bad shape. He was deathly thin and I thought he was going to hurt himself doing the Diamond Cutter and looked the worst of all the Legends to come out for this segment so far. I also wonder what sorry sap had to come to ring dressed as Doink as I highly doubt it was the original.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 3

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With Money in the Bank fast approaching, several wrestlers were revealed to be in contention for the fabled contract that guarantees a title shot at any time within 365 days of the PPV.

Main Plot Overview: Vickie Guerrero kicked the night off by excusing herself and saying she was Interim GM for this week’s Raw and Smackdown. The biggest news that Vickie revealed though was the WWE Championship Money in the Bank match would only be full of former champions themselves. So when John Cena revealed he would be partaking in his first Money in the Bank, along with Kane, Jericho, and Big Show, the stakes were immediately raised. Meanwhile CM Punk, the current title holder, will defend the WWE Championship that night anyway against Daniel Bryan after he won a triple threat match with Punk and Kane to kick things off.

Honestly, the biggest positive that comes from this is seeing John Cena back in the title hunt after being absent from that picture for almost a full year after losing the belt at Money in the Bank and then losing the re-unification match to CM Punk at Summerslam last year. Cena is at his best when the belt is involved and after this recent feud with Big Johnny and the Big Show seems to have won over a good portion of the crowd back to Cena’s side, now is the perfect time to re-insert him back into the picture. If we see ‘Super Cena’ too early though, the positive energy John has been getting lately may be flushed back down the toilet. Best outcome for the WWE Championship MITB? Jericho winning hands down.

Match of the Night: In terms of actual wrestling, this was one of the worst MNRs in a while as most matches were gimmick matches, but the US Championship match between Santino and Jack Swagger actually had a couple of nice spots to barely beat out the women’s match (I was very tempted to make this the Divas Summertime Beach Battle Brawl match it was so bad a night), and the Alberto Del Rio/Dolph Ziggler #1 Contender’s match (the Del Rio Samoan Drop from the second turnbuckle was the spot of the night for sure) and only that there was a cop out outcome where there would just be a triple threat match Friday for Sheamus’ World Heavyweight Championship kept that from getting match of the night.

Swagger and Santino are both very strong in the ring although their styles are completely different. Santino’ speed versus Swagger’s strength were clearly played up throughout. Santino hit his classic arm drag after doing a split to duck a clothesline and Swagger showed off his power by countering several moves into solid suplexes and power slams. So technically this was a very solid match. But in the end the Cobra would be Swagger’s undoing as Santino continues a remarkable run as the US Champion.

Promo of the Night: It was very unusual that RAW didn’t really have a promo to kick the night off and instead got very quickly into the Punk/Kane/Bryan triple threat match. Instead, the biggest promo of the night was John Cena’s ‘historic’ announcment where he said he would take part in MITB for the WWE Championship.

The promo started with John doing a horrible Star Wars parallel to recent events in the WWE, but we were all saved by Chris Jericho (after a very long Fozzy promo) who called Cena out on his arrogance and how he doesn’t know what he’s getting into at MITB. The best line of the promo though was Jericho making fun of Cena’s Star Wars promo that seemed dedicated to 9-year olds and then Cena pointing out that is the majority of their audience. Cena was also quick to point out that although Jericho has been in more MITB than anyone on the current roster, he’s also never won it. It was a great promo that really helps set the stage for the weeks to come and possible a Cena/Jericho/Big Show rivalry or maybe the return of Jeri-Show!

Shocker of the Night: RAW opened up with AJ (I love her) practicing how she was going to break up with her recent love interests in front of a mirror, but the shock came when she was backstage with Kane and the Big Red Machine beat her to it. Calling AJ’s sanity into question in a bit of delicious irony, Kane appreciated her affection but was too much of a monster to become involved with Daniel Bryan’s former flame. This entertaining moment was definitely a shock as it seemed Kane broke character to let her down gently, although it reality it was all part of AJ’s plan…I think.

Cheap Pop of the Night: Sycho Sid was a dominate force in the WWE and WCW when he was in his prime before a career ending leg injury forced the 6’ 9” mountain of a man into limited action and then retirement. So to see him come out for a match against Heath Slater as we continue the build up RAW’s 1000th episode was a great moment indeed. Sid looked very stiff in the ring, no surprise considering most of his one leg is an iron bar, but Slater took the bumps well and seeing Sid toss the ‘One-Man Band’ down with authority when he hit his finishing release powerbomb was definitely worthy of the cheap pop of the night.

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 2

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July 8, 2012

With the fallout of No Way Out starting to settle, it was definitely one of the less interesting Monday Night Raw’s I’ve seen in a while. Being one of the last of the 2-hour episodes though, I’m sure everyone was trying to take it easy after one of the better WWE PPVs in quite some time and I’m sure some folks mailed it in.

Main Plot Overview: John Laurinaitis is finally gone. Embarrassingly fired the night before, Interim General Manager for the week, Mick Foley (RAW was in Uniondale, NY, very close to where Mick lives and he received a great hand) allowed Big Johnny one last goodbye to the WWE Universe. Instead, Laurinaitis belittled the raucous Long Island crowd and revealed he had set up a 3-on-1 handicap match between Otunga, Big Show, and himself versus John Cena before the steel cage match the night before. Mick said there was nothing he could do about that, but he personally set up a tag match between Daniel Bryan and Kane versus CM Punk and Sheamus that would get the night started.

Later in the evening, both Otunga and Big Show would walk out on Big Johnny since neither has to work for him anymore and in a crowd rallying beat down, John Cena performed three AA’s before making him submit. A final farewell indeed to Mr. Laurinaitis. We still don’t know who will become the permanent GM though of RAW and Smackdown, although Teddy Long remains the hands down favorite, especially after watching Laurinaitis’s final beat down ringside.

Match of the Night: The feud between Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger had been simmering for some time now. Last night, Ziggler took that simmering pan and beat Swagger over the head with it. Although one of the shorter matches of the night, it was also one of the few that actually had a conclusive finish with no real outside interference. In a match that looks to be the end of the tag team, Swagger and Ziggler put on an impressive show as both wrestlers show how technically sound they are in the ring.  Swagger took the early advantage, looking to have damaged Ziggler’s knee, but a surprise Zig Zag saw the Show Off emerge victorious. We then saw another surprise as Ziggler locked lips with Vickie Guerrero to celebrate his victory as Swagger was left stunned and managerless in the ring.

Promo of the Night: Although Mick Foley’s classic humor was evident throughout the show’s open, the promo of the night was clearly when ECW founder, and current legal representation for Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman came to the ring to tell HHH that Lesnar does not want to face him at Summerslam.

HHH then came out though sand said Lesnar would because his ego wouldn’t have it any other way. Heyman then began to goad HHH in a way that only great heels can and finally forced HHH to knock Heyman out with a surprise right hand that sent Heyman flying.

Heyman, whether his more natural heel persona or a face, always can’t help but draw eyeballs to him when he’s in a ring. He may not have the physique of a wrestler, but his charisma pulls people to him like flies to cow dung and going against a pro’s pro with the mic in HHH was a great moment.

Shocker of the Night: The previously mentioned tag match between CM Punk and Sheamus vs Kane and Daniel Bryan had a guest visit from none other than AJ. It’s not so much that her continued presence in that twisted love-quadrangle that was a shock, but that she came skipping to the ring in a rejected Harley Quinn set of tights and a Kane mask.

Just like the previous two times, the Big Red Machine left ring side in confusion, lust, and whatever else is supposed to go on behind that mask and left Bryan all alone to be decimated by Punk and Sheamus. The most shocking part of all this though may be how much the WWE is dragging this out before Kane snaps and this storyline comes to an end. But, much like CM Punk, I dig crazy chicks and so the more AJ stays around, the happier I actually am.

Cheap Pop of the Night: After a more than 20-year absence from the ring, Cyndi Lauper came out with WWE Hall of Famer Wendi Richter and current Divas Champion Layla for a brief ceremony. The ceremony was cut short by Heath Slater unfortunately who wished to show off his singing ability. Saving the day though was good ol’ Rowdy Roddy Piper who was also on hand to present Cyndi Lauper with a special gold record. When Heath wouldn’t shut up, Cyndi smashed him over the head with the glass frame, actually cutting Slater if you looked closely.

The cheap pop though, aside from Roddy’s very presence, was the mentioning of Captain Lou Albano several times. Anyone who is a fan of wrestling was a fan of Lou and so when Roddy mentioned several times in his speech, the crowd erupted. It was a sign of respect, love, and admiration for one of the great wrestlers of the last generation, but it was also a little cheap.

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The Sleeper Hold – No Way Out PPV

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Although The Sleeper Hold will typically only be a once a week thing, we feel that for PPVs, we will hold special editions of the column. If you do not wish to have the results spoiled, in this case for No Way Out, before tonight’s Monday Night RAW, we are officially warning you now. Let me be the first to say though that this was one of the most solid PPVs, from start to finish, that the WWE has put on in a while.

Main Plot Overview: The Big Show vs John Cena was finally here. And yet another final match of the night with no gold on the line. I understand that Cena is the ‘golden goose’ as Big Show puts it, but with the WWE Championship being so hotly contended right now, I’m still a little disappointed in the rundown of the card.

Anyway, Cena and Show did a great job inside the cage, each hitting several big spots that showcased their limited skills in the ring. Big Show dead lifting Cena by his throat to the top rope and then missing with an elbow that shook the entire ring (not on purprose) were both great moments.

Outside the ring is where the real action took place though as Brodus Clay looks to finally move up in the world and stop dealing in dark matches and jobbers. His interference in the match cemented him as a face for some time as with a steel chair he prevented Big Show from escaping the cage and then prevented John Laurinatis from stopping John Cena from leaving the cage.

The match culminated in an unusual high note for a PPV as Cena AA’d Laurinatis through the Spanish announce table (it survived all but the last 30 seconds of the PPV…so close!) and McMahon uttered those two classic words: YOU’RE FIRED! The question now is who will take over as GM. Front runner is Teddy Long, but as long as its not the computer again, I’ll be happy.

Match of the Night: I was very tempted to give this to CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane for the WWE Championship, but that match’s ending left a bitter taste in my mouth. Bryan wasn’t involved, AJ interfered, and although it was expected, it was only for two seconds as Kane immediately smacked into her by accident, he was distraught and Punk capitalized. A brilliantly executed match ended in about 15 seconds on a sour note.

No, the winner of Match of the Night goes to the IC Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Christian, where Christian retained. This match had everything you wanted from a mid-card match. A quick and frantic pace where each competitor countered and kicked out of the other’s best moves, and the ones that did hit mattered. This was easily the tightest match of the night and along with the fact that it helps the movement to re-establish the IC belt as something coveted by up and coming wrestlers, it was my hands down favorite match of the night.

Promo of the Night: It is rare for promos to be cut during a PPV as it is supposed to be the culmination of a month’s worth (if not longer) of storylines and so I thought about removing this category. But we had a couple of nice promos early in the night to promote later matches where Josh Matthews was belittled by John Laurinatis and AJ made Matt Stryker look like he was crazy, but the big one came from The Game. Yes, HHH reappeared and called out Brock Lesnar for a match at Summerslam in Los Angeles. I’m sure we’ll hear Brock’s acceptance of the match in the coming weeks, but it was good to see The Game again as he is still an expert with the microphone.

Shocker of the Night: The Divas’ Championship (I still wish it was ‘Women’s Championship’) match. Why? Because someone besides Natalya and Beth Phoenix showed they can wrestle (Kharma can too, but no one knows where she is still). Layla, who missed a year due to an awful knee injury, showed she can play with the big dogs in the ring. In a match that was longer than 95% of most other women’s matches, Beth and Layla pulled off a surprisingly entertaining and technically tight match that does the struggling women’s division proud. What had become a joke in recent years is once again starting to show promise with girls who actually know what they’re doing when they step in the squared circle and Layla has definitely won me over now. The talent may always have been there, but no one could see it when she was part of ‘Laycool’.

Move of the Night: Speaking of struggling divisions, the Tag Team division has been in shambles for a long time and part of the reason is you don’t have any real ‘tag teams’ anymore. Even Kofi and R-Truth isn’t a real tag team and it’s only a matter of time before they return to singles matches. But the WWE is still trying to fix what they broke almost a decade ago now.

So there was a Fatal 4-Way tag match between Epico and Primo vs Primetime Playas vs The Usos vs Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd. First off, I’d love to see Gabriel and Kidd stick around as a tag-team. And right there in that card, you have an okay foundation for your tag division. Everyone there is extremely talented in the ring. All you need is for some of them to work on their mic skills and start cutting promos that call each other out, which may have started with AW, Epico and Primo’s manager, jumping ship to Primetime Playas.

Anyway, I digress. Move of the night was hit by Tyson Kidd. This was an easy call as it elicited the only ‘Holy S***!!” chant of the night from East Rutherford, NJ, crowd (Mick Foley thumbs up). Kidd hit a hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring that threw his opponent into four of the other opponents who had stumbled outside the ring during a scuffle. This left only two men in the ring to let the match come to a conclusion, but also was easily the most death defying move of the night deserves to have a spotlight shone on it.

Most Disappointing Match of the Night: The overall card was very solid for No Way Out, but one match stuck out to me as kind of a stinker. It was the World Heavyweight Championship match that kicked the night off. Firstly, I understand you want to try to start the show off with a bang, but it seems more like a slap in the face of this particular title when you put it out first and then have those matches be some of the shortest of the night.

But the real reason why this match stunk was because ‘The Great White’ Sheamus didn’t hold his own against a much more technically sound Dolph Ziggler, but still won the match. I understand they are two completely different kinds of wrestlers, but if Kane can put on a good show with Punk and Daniel Bryan, Sheamus can at least sell a little better against Ziggler. Not to mention that several times during the match, moves were botched and it looked like the two of them were just crawling all over each other.

Sheamus is heading into dark waters if he is not careful because several times the crowd starting rooting for Ziggler, the heel, and it reminded me a lot of John Cena’s matches when he started to lose the crowd (which it seems he has finally won back almost completely).

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 1

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Something new we’ve been mulling over for some time at EGMNOW.com is to look at professional wrestling. All of us here in the office are huge fans of the WWE brand and often we get into arguments over how plotlines are developing, who should and shouldn’t be getting put over, and just how much power John Cena gets from his trademark jorts. In that vein, we hope to give you a brief overview of our thoughts on what is transpiring each week and maybe even entertain some of you in the process.

Main Plot Overview: The big overarching plot of June 11th’s Monday Night RAW, which came to us live from Hartford, CT (gives Mick Foley thumbs up), was whether or not John “Big Johnny” Laurenitis would finally be fired, as Vince McMahon would step back into the squared circle for the first time in nearly nine months and re-take the reigns of his company. Giving Laurenitis one last chance, McMahon wanted Big Johnny to put on the card of a lifetime in a special 3-hour edition of RAW (really a test run for the expanded format starting July 23rd, which I’m all for because it will allow a lot of wrestlers and the lesser belts to be put back into the spotlight on a regular basis).

Laurenitis would seemingly fail at this task though, and at the end, when he was about to be fired in classic McMahon fashion, Big Show would storm the ring to side with Big Johnny, soon followed by John Cena who would side with McMahon. This would lead to a scrum (of course) and the stipulation that Cena vs Show at No Way Out, this coming Sunday’s PPV, would have Laurenitis’ job on the line (again).

Match of the Night: A decent subplot that emerged from last night came really from the fact that Alberto Del Rio was injured once again in his last match. This left the number one contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship wide open and so an impromptu Fatal 4-Way Elimination match was signed between Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Christian, and the Great Khali.

Once Khali was quickly eliminated (his continued presence after all is only there for the obligatory Indian audience demographic bump), the match really did a great job of impressing. Swagger, Ziggler, and Christian are three of the better in-ring tacticians the WWE roster has right now and when it came down to Christian versus Ziggler, the crowd couldn’t get enough of it.

Ziggler was going to get the obvious bump when it was down to them though since Chrisitian is already the IC champ, and many more expected it would’ve been Ziggler vs Swagger in the end anyway since both are in such desperate need of a bump, but to see the Show-Off walk away as number one contender was the right move and may make the PPV Sunday actually watchable.

Promo of the Night: Vince’s return to the ring was a great moment and his banter with Laurenitis to open the show was comical and necessary, but this award goes to CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in preparation for Sunday’s Triple Threat WWE Championship match. And not just because these two know how to drop pipe bombs that always push the right buttons with the crowd, but because when the third participant in that match, Kane, came to the ring, it added a nuance to the “I’m better than you” angle that Punk and Bryan have going with each other right now.

What really put this over the top was AJ though. Aside from being insanely hot (she’s a pro wrestler and a fellow geek…yes, I am in love), her crazy chick motif got the biggest rise out of the crowd during this segment and the jokes that King and Cole were cracking about her was probably their best moment of the night as well. From her gushing over Punk, to saying how D-Bryan has her first love, and that like the tin man, Kane actually has a heart, this love quadrangle train wreck kept everyone talking long after it was over.

Shocker of the Night: Although some people are still shocked that John Cena has finally won the crowd completely back over to his side by pitting him against some great heels in Big Show and Laurenitis, the shocker came in the glorified handicap match that was D-Bryan and Kane vs CM Punk and AJ, which was a result of their aforementioned promo.

Mind you, it wasn’t the match itself, but how it was won. By AJ planting a 30-second kiss on Kane that took the Big Red Machine completely out of the match. And yes, it was literally a 30-second kiss, with just Kane standing there, looking completely dumbfounded, and AJ going to town while having her legs wrapped around his waist. The crowd started cheering…and the kiss was so long that the cheers turned to leers as we all just couldn’t help but watch this unfold in the ring. Did I mention that I love AJ?

Cheap Pop of the Night: It was revealed late in the show that Vince had brought with him a classic wrestler from RAW’s past to help ring in the event in a few weeks that will be the 1000th episode, that he was to be in action that night, and that his opponent was to be Heath Slater.

And when we all found out who it was, the crowd went absolutely nuts. Because it was time. It was time. IT WAS VADER TIME! That’s right, the Mastadon himself, looking much slimmer than during his prime, so much so that his mask didn’t even fit right, came storming down to the ring and everyone threw up the V’s with their fingers in a salute to this legend.

And to his credit, even in his late 50s now, Vader put on a solid show. Part of this I think was also Slater doing a solid job of taking bumps and selling everything, including the patented Vader bomb, but Vader got around the ring very well and showed he was still in decent wrestling shape. It wasn’t a long match by any means, but the crowd went absolutely bonkers for it and admittedly, as a long time Vader fan, it was great to see him in action one last time.

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WWE 12 EGM E3 2011 Preview

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June 29, 2011

Originally Published: June 21, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

IT’S GONNA BE A SLOBBERKNOCKER!

WHAT ITS ABOUT: This is the latest installment of THQ’s hit yearly WWE wrestling franchise, which sees a much needed facelift while still featuring some of the sports entertainment business’s biggest names.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This franchise had been just coasting along up until last year’s revolutionary online Royal Rumble feature. But that was only the beginning as this year’s entry marks not only a branding change that falls in line with the WWE’s slow movement to dissolve the rivalry between their RAW and Smackdown TV programs, but adds a brand new submission system and new “Predator” gameplay mechanics in honor of the game’s cover boy, Randy Orton.

WHAT RAY THINKS: I was able to take control of “The Awesome One” himself, The Miz, for a brief demo against a CPU Randy Orton and was amazed at not only how smooth the new animations for the game seemed, but how much easier it was to just pick up and play, which should please old and new fans alike. I just hope they work out the glitch that wouldn’t let me pin Orton after performing four finishers before November’s launch.

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