The Raw Debrief 2/8/10

Welcome back, one and all, to the Raw Debrief. This is the penultimate Raw before Summerslam, so presumably Team Raw won’t be on the same page just yet. Last week the team was as fragmented as it possibly could be, right?

We start off with Edge. He reminds us that the fans let him down when he came back from his injury, and now that he’s no longer listening to them he’s much better off, so he needs . He doesn’t respect Cena, trust Jericho or have any faith in Khali, and he doesn’t know Truth or Morrison. He does, however, agree that Nexus needs to be taken out, and so he’s taking matters into his own hands and challenging Barrett to a one on one match tonight. For some reason, R-Truth comes out and cuts a slightly confusing promo about fighting for the WWE Universe. That finally gets the crowd up and moving, Truth tells Edge that he needs to pull together with the team. Edge tells him that his version of The Truth is different, he’s going to take Barrett out to cut the head off the snake, and when he does that Nexus will crumble.

Bingle! Yeah, it’s as annoying in real life as it is here. Mr Anonymous GM tells Edge he can have his request, and R-Truth can get out of the ring, because that match is up next. Truth wishes him good luck, and tells him he’s on his own.

Match 1: Edge vs. Wade Barrett

Barrett does come out alone, and Edge gets on top pretty quickly, utilising a baseball slide and a trip, then hangs him up on the top rope. He hits what is effectively a spear into the turnbuckle, but Barrett hits a couple of big boots to regain the momentum and sends Edge crashing to the outside. Barrett plays the heel quite effectively, getting to 4 counts on the ropes on a couple of occasions, raising some ‘Let’s go Edge’ chants. A double takedown leads to Edge regaining the momentum, and an Edgecution is reversed into a clothesline, which Edge ducks and hits the Edge O’Matic and heads up top. Barrett’s unnamed finisher is reversed into the Edgecution, and sets up for the spear, but Barrett rolls out of the ring. Barrett calls in the troops, and Edge narrowly escapes.

Result – No contest, I guess, there was no contact so it’s not a DQ

Edge finds Cena backstage, and accuses Cena of not being there. Cena replies that he was simply taking Edge’s advice and leaving him alone. Edge takes this badly, and quits the team. Jericho sidles into the shot, and challenges Cena to a ‘Loser leaves the Summerslam team’ match.

A Summerslam Rewind – Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect. If you want a recap of that match, check out the Righteous Rankings.

Khali’s backstage with Morrison, who reminds us of the Magnificent 7 and the 7 Samurai. Khali (via Ranjin Singh) reminds us that there’s also the 7 dwarves. Morrison wishes him luck in his match with DiBiase. After Morrison leaves, Tarver and Otunga come in peace to say that they don’t attack people they respect, and that their door is always open. Ranjin Singh tells Khali that he should think about it.

Match 2: Eve, Natalya and Gail Kim vs. Tamina, Jillian and Alicia Fox

Cole tells us that Jillian and Alicia have made up after their altercation last week. Cole for some reason brings up Lindsey Lohan, saying he’s sure she learned her lesson after her spell in prison. Kinda random. Jillian refuses to tag in when Alicia offers. Gail Kim leaps up to the top rope and flies to the outside, quite impressive. Natalya goes for a sharpshooter but gets distracted by Tamina long enough for Alicia to hit the axe kick for the win. Pretty good match for the divas... very short though. Natalya was very impressive in her short time in the ring.

Alicia announces that everyone is witness to the greatest reign in Diva’s history. There isn’t a diva on the whole roster who can be compared to her............

Welcome back Melina! Jillian throws Alicia back into the ring, who does her Matrix dodge thing, hits a version of the Skull Crushing Finale and the splits-style leg drop. King reminds us that she never lost the title, she had to vacate it due to injury, and she wants it back.

Match 3: Sheamus vs. Goldust

little package is shown, so that we remember that in ECW, Sheamus’ first rivalry was with the Golden One. I was actually reporting on ECW at the time and remember it being a good rivalry in which I tipped Sheamus for the top. Sheamus dominates Goldust from the start though, with a couple of short flurries from Goldust, but the Irish Curse backbreaker, followed by the Brogue Kick and followed by the High Cross crucifix powerbomb.

Ok, so maybe Goldust wasn’t allowed any momentum in this match, which is a shame. A pretty quick squash, but it showed Sheamus as the dominant champion, and he grabs the mic to tell us as much. He’s on top o’ the world! He brings up Triple H, a man Randy Orton couldn’t beat, and he ended his career. He’ll do the same to Orton.

Match 5: John Cena vs. Chris Jericho – Loser leaves Team Raw for Summerslam

They keep referring to Team Raw as Team WWE. So Smackdown doesn’t exist then? Because I’d have thought Big Show would be on Team WWE ahead of Khali. Kingston for R-Truth. CM Punk (or indeed anyone) for Bret Hart.

Back to the match, Jericho gets on top early and sends Cena to the outside and then crashing into the steps. He just beats the 10 count into the ring, and Jericho screams at him to stay down. The match has barely started Chris, he’s clearly not going to do anything without his moves of doom! A brief flurry by Cena is met with an elbow in the corner and a guillotine.

Cole asks a good question... why did they bother joining Cena in the first place?

Jericho misses a shoulder into the corner. Cue the 5 moves, but Jericho hits a Codebreaker during the 5-knuckle shuffle but Cena rolls out of the ring. Jericho gets him back in and only gets the 2 count. Cena goes for the STF and doesn’t manage to get it, Jericho responds with the Walls of Jericho, but also fails to lock it in. Attitude Adjustment attempt also fails to find the mark. King and Cole remark on the fact that Cena’s looked absolutely useless so far, and Jericho hits the springboard dropkick, sending Cena to the outside. Jericho shouts at him, ‘Stay down! You’re a stupid man!’ and throws him into the ring and hits a diving elbow from the top for another 2. Cena misses a bulldog and Jericho hits a Lionsault to the knees of Cena for another 2... This is really going to annoy me when Cena wins. Jericho’s just been destroying him all match.

Jericho heads up top to go for a superplex but Cena fights out and hits the leg drop to the back of the neck, and ‘tweaks’ his knee. He goes for the AA again, and Jericho reverses into the Walls. Another reversal into the STF and Jericho taps instantly. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Cena hadn’t even locked it in and he looks very disappointed that he tapped.

Cena gets on the mic and says he doesn’t want Jericho to leave, tells him that he is the best in the world at what he does, he can go toe to toe with anyone. Jericho looks like he’s nearly crying. Cena says they can coexist or he can walk away and let everyone down, including himself. The Y2J chants start up, but he shakes his head and walks up the ramp. So it’s down to Cena, Khali, Morrison, Truth and Bret Hart. That team’s going to get killed...

Edge tells Jericho he respects him for what he did, and Jericho returns the compliment. Edge and Jericho shake hands and agree to let bygones be bygones.

Bingle! Cole tells them that Jericho and Edge will team up next week to face Bret Hart and John Cena, with all 7 members of Nexus as lumberjacks. That should be interesting...

Josh Matthews is with Randy Orton, who remembers that he gave Triple H a 6-week vacation due to a punt to the skull. He invites Sheamus to come to ringside and watch to see what he can do to another person, and promises that Miz will be in no shape to cash in his MITB briefcase.

The full length trailer for Legendary, starring John Cena and Danny Glover, and a couple of people I don’t recognise (Patricia Clarkson and some kid). It’s about a weedy kid who gets into amateur wrestling.

Match 6: The Great Khali vs. Ted DiBiase

Ranjin Singh seems to have started liking Khali again, after that thing several weeks ago where he calls him a coward, effectively. Storyline that didn’t come to fruition, maybe. They show a replay of Nexus’ attempts to woo Khali earlier. Of course, the main advantage of this is that Maryse is at ringside. Khali’s allowed the same open-handed chop as Big Show, apparently. Khali does the powerful thing for a while, until Maryse provides the distraction. Barrett and Sheffield come down to ringside, distract DiBiase and Khali hits the brain chop and locks in the Vice Grip.

Little preview of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in ‘The Other Guys’. The Bellas come in, and hit on Ferrell, who says they’re ‘average-looking’ women. Wahlberg says he likes Alicia Fox anyway.

Miz tells Randy Orton he made a mistake last week, that he doesn’t have a shred of positivity in his future. Orton’s best case scenario is that he beats Sheamus for the championship at Summerslam, which will be quickly followed by HIS moment. He will be the champion, because he’s The Miz! And he’s AAAWWWWWESOME!

And he deserves his push.

Match 7: The Miz vs. Randy Orton

Orton gets on top early, with his slow strikes, but misses a knee drop allowing Miz to get on top. He risks disqualification a few times, before running into a boot in the corner, followed up by a guillotine. This time he does hit the knee drop, and follows up with a clothesline over the top. Sheamus appears at the top of the ramp, presumably to take up Orton’s offer of a place at ringside. He actually stays at the top of the ramp, and Miz finally hits a jawbreaker and a big boot to get some momentum back. A few more strikes to the head and a running boot gets a 2 count, and is followed up by a chinlock. Orton replies with his backbreaker but yet another ‘tweak’ to the knee. Miz sends him crashing into the turnbuckle and hits the running clothesline where he ends up sitting on the second rope, and gets another 2 count, followed up by a series of punches and stomps. They both look quite good but they seem to lack chemistry in the ring, their styles are too similar. Orton pulls out the snap powerslam and goes for the rope-hanging DDT but Miz tosses him over the top rope. Back in the ring and Miz hits the backbreaker-neckbreaker combo for a close 2. Miz misses with a clothesline and an RKO from nowhere picks up the win. Sheamus looks to storm the ring, but the Viper coils and Sheamus thinks better of it.

Show rating – B+

A solid show, but no really stand-out matches. Team WWE is down to 5, maybe even 4 as Khali’s loyalty is in question. Next week is the final Raw before Summerslam, and it’s Edge and Jericho vs. Bret Hart and John Cena... maybe the differences can be reconciled.

I’ve been The General, consider yourself debriefed.

The Raw Debrief 2/8/10

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