Live from Philadelphia, PA this is the Raw Deal…

Before we get started, here's the link to my column called Twenty Ideas for WWE to Consider that I posted on Monday prior to Raw airing. It's a fun read that has been well received for the most part. Give it a look.

To start out, they told us that Wade Barrett was at WWE corporate to explain the actions of the NXT group. What really happened is he's in the UK because his work visa expired. Same thing happened to Drew McIntyre. How do they, and WWE, let that happen? Weird. I doubt either guy is out more than 2-3 weeks. Hopefully it's not even that long. Somebody in talent relations screwed up, though.

The WWE Champ Sheamus came out. He mentioned the NXT group and they really tried to put the name "The Nexus" out there, so I guess that's the official one. He said he doesn't have to face Cena again because of the rematch last week and that he hated Cena. Of course that meant Cena had to come out. Cena made his jokes, some of which were decent at least, and said he wanted to fight with Sheamus against The Nexus boys. They had a podium for Michael Cole to read from, so he got an email from GM Anonymous. I love how the people booed Cole as soon as he got up. That's fantastic. Cole said Barrett's making his case at WWE headquarters, so no official actions tonight. He said if The Nexus attacks any WWE superstars they are terminated and if a WWE superstar attacks them they are suspended. Cena said his plan was ruined, so he wanted a WWE title match. Nope says the GM, it's Sheamus vs. Mark Henry tonight. Cena mockingly blamed the internet for ruining his plans and said he wanted a personal email from the GM to his address at "candypants564@gmail.org" which I'm sure drew a lot of emails. It should be .com, but who wants to get technical? Computer buzzed saying tonight we'd learn the MITB competitors and they'd wrestle eachother in a 8 man tag later. No, a MEGA tag match. Sheamus left. Another email cued up a cage coming down from the ceiling. It was announced that at Money in the Bank it would be Sheamus vs. Cena in a steel cage match for the title because the cage would keep the Nexus boys out of there. Yeah, because nobody's ever got into a cage before. I loved how Lawler, who has been around pro wrestling for over 40 years, reacts to it like it's the first time he's seen a cage before and he really believes nobody can interfere. That's fine, though. I expect the announcers to say stupid stuff. Cage match should be okay. This was a long opening segment at about 15 minutes, but they got a lot done.

The Hart Dynasty came out for some kind of match, I guess. Instead, the Usos jumped them from behind. Tamina threw Natalya into the ring and hit her with a Superfly Splash. And we got some cleavage shots of Natalya to make it worthwhile. I'm assuming this leads to a match at the MITB PPV although we don’t know for sure.

Kozlov d. Santino (DUD)
Kozlov won. Santino put up a decent fight, I guess. After the match, Regal came out to attack Santino because we're supposed to remember that they had a match recently. Kozlov saved Santino. Kozlov tried to help him up and Santino fell down like an idiot. Here's your comedy tag team. Not a great segment.

Backstage, Josh interview Khali with Ranjin Sideburns about The Nexus. Ranjin called his brother stupid and that if The Nexus came back here he'd run away scared. Oh no, a rift between the Singh brothers? I'm tearing up here. The Great Cantoni thinks this potential feud will not be good.

The guest host (they still have them?) Rob Zombie came out. Michael Cole LOVED him. His music is amazing. His new album is ridiculously good. If you don't believe MC, who can you believe? I like Zombie just fine. I just can't stand Cole. Here are the eight guys in Money in the Bank: Randy Orton, The Miz, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, John Morrison and Edge. Zombie doesn't like Edge because he changed his theme music from a Zombie song to his current one. So there! Edge came on screen to lead us to a video package about when he won MITB the first time. I think I saw Benoit in that clip from WM21. Just saying. Edge said he's done it before and he'll do it again, basically. Last week when he said "the fun begins" to Orton he meant MITB. Good promo to establish Edge as the favorite. So why have Rob Zombie there? To read the names of 8 guys? He posted on twitter that shit was gonna happen. I didn't see any. His credibility is lower than Lawler now.

I hope Miz wins Money in the Bank. I'd be fine with it being Morrison or Bourne…even Dibiase. I don't think R-Truth has a chance in hell while I'd rather not see Jericho, Orton or Edge win due to being in the title picture all the time anyway.

The anonymous GM announced that later tonight the main event would be Orton/Bourne/Truth/Morrison vs. Jericho/Edge/Dibiase/Miz in a MEGA eight man tag match. I used to love Mega Man as a kid. Just saying.

Sheamus d. Mark Henry (*)
The champion won with a pump kick to the head just under three minutes in. If this was Jack Swagger they would have booked him to lose clean in six minutes and then wonder why he's not getting over. Look at how they book Sheamus. Then look at how they booked Swagger. But hey, it's the wrestler's fault. Not the writing!

Backstage, The Nexus boys talked to Josh. They said they'd still get their point across. Sheffield beat up a nerd that worked in TV production. Then they laughed at Josh in a taunting manner as the segment ended. In other words, they don' have to beat up others. They have others they can beat up. Just don't put them in matches because they're not very good. That'll show them.

FYI: The first hour of Raw had a total of 4 minutes of wrestling and the matches were Kozlov vs. Santino and Sheamus vs. Henry. This has been your "John misses Shawn Michaels" moment of the week.

The Nexus boys beat up old guys
They had a preview of the new Ricky Steamboat DVD that comes out today. Is there a part in there about how Hulk Hogan got him fired basically because his match at WM3 was so good that he felt a bit threatened by him? I'm guessing no. Oh well, it led to those great Steamboat/Flair matches in 1989 that are as good as any series of matches ever. Thanks Hulk. They had Lawler MC the segment. They brought out Dean Malenko, Mike Rotunda (IRS), Michael Hayes (head writer of Smackdown) and Arn Anderson - all of whom work backstage for WWE with Steamboat. Anderson's really the only one with any history with Steamer and the others basically said that. Anyway, right on cue the NXT boys came out. I guess they're allowed to attack old wrestlers, but not current ones. It was a slow beatdown. They pulled them out to the floor and beat on them. Steamboat was last. Typical to what we usually see with Otunga doing a slam, Sheffield with a clothesline and Gabriel ending it with the 450 splash. They walked away to silence. No announcers like usual.

I will give WWE some PRAISE for explaining multiple times why the roster couldn't help out. That was my big gripe in the last month. They say they're against Nexus, but they never helped out. At least this week they had the deal about how they'd be suspended if they tried anything. That's great. We need an explanation for the last month, though. But hey, baby steps. It's the little things, WWE. You want to make believable "reality" angles? Fine. Just make sure you cover all angles.

After the break, they showed Steamboat do the stretcher job. That'll sell DVDs. Best arm drag and cross body in the history of wrestling. I'm not sure how long this whole angle look, but they really gave it a lot of time to put over the importance of it.

Alicia & Maryse d. Gail & Eve (*1/2)
Before the match, Josh Mathews joined Cole on commentary to replace Lawler. I should point out I really didn't miss Lawler. This was better than the last one they had because at least they let Gail in the ring this time. Alicia did some pretty good work too. She's in her early 20s still and is definitely improving. Alicia won with her axe kick. The story teased was that Maryse wasn't too friendly with Alicia, who is now the champion on Raw. All women are jealous of eachother, right? Yes. That should get me some heel heat. Let's move on.

Video package of Vince McMahon getting beat up last week. I should write a column about the best beatings of Vince McMahon. There are so money. Nothing will top when he was tired of giving money away, so the set fell on him and he kept referring to Triple H as "Paul" to make it more real. That's my all time favorite.

Randy Orton, Evan Bourne, R-Truth & John Morrison d. Edge, Chris Jericho, The Miz & Ted Dibiase (**3/4)
Each guy got their own entrances with Maryse making a brief cameo with Dibiase by giving him a kiss on the cheek. The match started with about 20 minutes left in the show, so you knew they'd have time. It reminded me of some of the great tag matches we'd get on Raw early last decade involving Austin, Rock, Angle, HHH, etc. except it wasn't as good as those. The heels worked over Bourne for a while. He got Morrison in and they worked over him for a while. Very formulaic match as they went to break. Back from break, Morrison made the tag to Bourne, who ended up eating a lovely Codebreaker from Jericho. I LOVE the way Bourne takes that move. It's perfect. He couldn't cover him though, so Bourne eventually made it to Orton. It was the first time Orton was in the match. I guess that's a good way to protect the shoulder. I don't remember Truth being in there much at all. Orton hit the RKO on Dibiase for the win at 15 minutes. That felt a little rushed to me. No surprise with Dibiase getting owned by Orton. That's what always happens.

Post match, they tried to climb the ladder to get the briefcase. Orton was the last one left standing as he posed at the top. He grabbed the briefcase. The crowd popped for it pretty huge, chanting "Randy! Randy!" the whole time. Show ended with Orton posing with the briefcase. Like I said earlier, I hope Miz wins the match. We'll see what happens.

Three Stars of the Show
1. Ricky Steamboat
2. Chris Jericho
3. Evan Bourne

Worst Moment of the Week
I have to go with candypants564@gmail.org only because people must have thought it was real. Yes, people are that stupid.

5 out of 10
Last week: 6

It was a hard show for me to rate. I think they did a good job with the NXT angle as well as the build for Money in the Bank. It was a poor show if you like wrestling, though. The first three matches combined for about 8 minutes while the main event got decent time at 15 minutes.

To WWE's credit, again, at least they covered why nobody could save the old guys from the Nexus beating. Thank you for that. It is very much appreciated. My next question is are they gonna put the Nexus guys in matches anytime soon or are they only there for beatings? I mean, isn't that a way to punish them? It will be interesting to see how they go about doing that.

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Once again check out my column called Twenty Ideas for WWE to Consider that I posted on Monday prior to Raw airing.

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