It’s quite a milestone, to reach one thousand and still be going strong. Through the bad and the good, we’ve watched WWE flourish from WWE Superstars defeating nobodies to matches that stand the test of time. Raw isn’t the only thing to reach a thousand as this blog now has over a thousand readers and for that I, like WWE, must thank you, the people. The people who seek the truth, who are not happy being fed a stream of bullshit by corporate idiots who think they know best.
Onto Raw. I, like the rest of the world expected a party to rival any other. We might not have gotten that, but for the first time in a long time WWE surprised me on more than one occasion. And for me, that is a rarity.
The reunion of DX was a little emotional as all the members of the old DX gathered, with the exception of Chyna. But then after he sex tape with X Pac and her life going downhill WWE could hardly be seen parading a porn star on it’s PG rated product. The only reason X Pac got his face on T.V is that 1) he works for WWE behind the scenes and 2) he’s a veteran of the ring who has grafted for our respect. Billy Gunn hasn’t aged well but it was a real treat to see the reunion of not just DX but of one of the most popular tag teams of all times, the New Age Outlaws. Let’s now hope that WWE bury DX for at least ten years, because as I saw it this was the groups’ final farewell, one that will eclipse any reunion that WWE may have planned. Some things are best left as they are and Degeneration X are one of those things. I for one wouldn’t want the great memories of DX to be tarnished by five broken down men who can no longer recapture the magic.
It seems that WWE loves to build up men just to knock them down again. Like human skittles on a grand stage. But to push Dolph Ziggler as the winner of the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match and then knock him back on one of the most important episodes of television show ever is just plain dumb. The six man tag team match which took place on the 1,000 episode of Raw was very good but it was by far the wrong result.
Sheamus, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara of all people defeated Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho. The result should have been reversed on the night by Vince McMahon. Dolph Ziggler should have pinned Sheamus clean in the middle of the ring to cement his challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship. WWE took my advice, not that I’ll be claiming credit for it, about announcing when the briefcase will be cashed in, unfortunately they didn’t do it with Ziggler. After this match, WWE should have had Ziggler destroy Sheamus in the ring and leave him a broken man. This would have put, in the fans eyes, Sheamus on notice that Ziggler was coming for his Championship and proven to the WWE Universe that Ziggler is a real threat to the Irishman. We know that Sheamus is a supposed force to be reckoned with in WWE, I use that term loosely, we don’t need to see him beat Ziggler when it’s the number one contender who needs the push.
As of time of writing I believe that Dolph Ziggler will cash the briefcase in at SummerSlam, after Sheamus has been beaten down by whoever WWE puts him against. Yes, after the cheers and the public support, WWE are going to portray Ziggler as a coward heel whose Championship win will come off as a fluke. Please someone in Titan Towers see the damage this will do and change these plans.
I don’t have much to say about the bumbling Brodus Clay defeating Jack Swagger a former World Heavyweight Champion. WWE think so little of Swagger today that they see him as a card filler, only fit for padding out their ‘Superstars’ programme and feeding to the big guns and the up and comers who need a body to go over on T.V. Interestingly enough though, WWE can’t seem to grasp that they’re feeding swagger to the wrong up and comers. Jack Swagger could help Ryback to a mid card level if WWE gave him the chance. They won’t of course. Which is why I doubt Jack Swagger will ever be Champion again and has to be a serious contender for WWE’s annual clear out in April. Though I will add that the sight of Clay and Dude Love dancing at the end of the match was something out of a hippie’s nightmare.
One of the most entertaining segments was the supposed marriage of the stunning A.J and the technically gifted Daniel Bryan. We all knew something was going to happen. It always does. Name me a wrestling wedding that has gone correctly. Macho Man and Elizabeth were gate crashed by Jake the Snake and the Undertaker. Triple H revealed that he’d ‘married’ Stephanie before her wedding to Test. Billy and Chuck destroyed their own nuptials when they told Rico they weren’t gay, only for the vicar to reveal himself as Eric Bischoff in prosthetics and then be destroyed by ‘Three Minute Warning’, Rosey and Jamal. And then Triple H stopped his vowel renewal to Stephanie when he found out she wasn’t pregnant, called her a ‘lying bitch’ and pie faced her in the ring. If you are booking your wedding, then you’ll probably want to boycott WWE’s wedding business.
I was convinced that A.J was going to turn on Bryan, and she did, just not in the way I thought. I was looking for C.M Punk to storm the ring, attack Bryan and carry A.J away when she stood Daniel Bryan up and was then announced as the new GM of Raw. I could see the cloud that has been sitting heavy on WWE for ages now lift. Finally, after Vicki Guerrero was such a riotous success, WWE have seen sense to make A.J, the prominent female in WWE in 2012, a vital part of the furniture. As General Manager A.J can have a positive effect on any and every storyline in WWE, which should give them a different flavour.
On the Daniel Bryan front, hopefully this means that the love triangle isn’t over and Punk and Bryan will go again at SummerSlam. More on that later.
It was really good to see the Rock come back. Okay, it’s only been three months since he left but the Rock breathes a different life into WWE. Something more positive and tasteful. He’s the flavouring for an otherwise stale taste. When the Rock announced that he was going to be WWE Champion, the night after Wrestlemania 28, immediately I knew it would come true. WWE don’t make a promise like that and not follow it through. They bin other storylines like a bad habit but not this one. The Rock would never have agreed to appear again if WWE hadn’t have promised him the WWE Championship. And it was announced that the Rock would fight for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble.
Here are two possible outcomes for January’s biggest pay per view. The Rock takes on C.M Punk for the WWE Championship and wins. Thus going to Wrestlemania and losing the gold back to Punk or Cena. That would entail the Rock staying in WWE through January to April. The man is a Hollywood star and doesn’t have the time. So the other and better outcome would be this: the Rock loses to C.M Punk at Royal Rumble, yet undeterred by the loss the Rock enters the Royal Rumble match later in the night and wins, securing his place at Wrestlemania 29. At Wrestlemania 29 the Rock defeats C.M Punk for the WWE Championship, ending an epic C.M Punk title reign, takes the microphone and says that he officially retires from wrestling as WWE Champion. It would be the perfect ending to an immaculate and shining career. Going out on top, with the fans standing ovation, chanting ‘Thank you Rock’. After that, the Rock would take his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame, have his proper goodbye and the vacated WWE Championship would then be put up for grabs in a King of the Ring style tournament which wouldn’t end until SummerSlam. WWE could then scrap the spinner championship and replace it with the new version that has been created. This would give WWE the chance to push the World Heavyweight Championship onto centre stage.
Either way, the Rock will be WWE Champion in 2013. And whether you like it or not, whether you like Dwayne Johnson or not, any real wrestling fan cannot deny that for his efforts between 1996 and 2004 he has earned the title of Champion.
WWE have taken giant steps by making the Miz Intercontinental Champion. Even though I only believe he’ll hold it until the Marine 3 is released, the Miz has a few months to make his name in WWE again and show the world that if and possible when WWE buries him before Christmas, what the company are really like. A feud with Christian would shoot the Miz back into the main event scene and maybe ‘the awesome one’ after a few months rehabilitation feuding with Christian will be the perfect choice for WWE Champion in 2013 if or when the Rock vacates the gold.
Everyone knew that Brock Lesnar was going to accept Triple H’s offer of a match for SummerSlam and WWE, once again, did the right thing by having Lesnar attacking Triple H on Raw. Lesnar now looks like the monster he should have after Extreme Rules and the John Cena debacle. Had Triple H attacked Lesnar then it would have taken the heat out of the confrontation. However I do expect Triple H to defeat Lesnar at SummerSlam to gain some revenge. With the word out that Lesnar will also appear at Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and definitely Wrestlemania 29 in 2013, maybe WWE could begin to build the much talked about match with the Undertaker at ‘Mania 29. Which as far as we know, will be Lesnar’s swansong with WWE for good.
I’m all for seeing old timers gather in the ring and take their applause for all their efforts, but it crosses the line when those old timers make a fool out of a man who has the potential to be a bright star in WWE in the future. Even if Heath Slater does brandish himself as the ‘One man band’ and dresses like George Michaels’ personal rent boy. When Lita defeated Slater in mere minutes, if not seconds, I wasn’t timing, I knew that Slater was destined for Superstars before being ‘Future Endeavoured’. No doubt it was good to see the APA reunited, JBL has never been better than when he was with Farooq, even though I stand by the opinion that his 2004 – 2005, ten month WWE Championship reign wasn’t a total failure. He stepped into the breach when Eddie Guerrero couldn’t cope and was a fine caretaker champion. Along with Simmons, Roddy piper, Doink the Clown, Slick, Animal, DDP, Howard Finkel and Sean Mooney, it was a welcome trip down memory lane.
Whilst we’re on the subject of returning legends, I was happy to see Undertaker for the first time since Wrestlemania 28. The guy, for his age looks fantastic. Even though we don’t expect to see him again until either SummerSlam, Survivor Series or Royal Rumble, it was a treat to see ‘the Brothers of Destruction’ again. Even if it wasn’t clear why Undertaker, a face, teamed with his brother Kane, a heel. I didn’t approve of crushing six talented young men in Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal, Curt Hawkins, the ever expendable Hunico and Camacho, and Tyler Reks. WWE really does know how to bury the future of their business don’t they?
The icing on the cake was the main event. John Cena, cashing in his briefcase on C.M Punk and losing. Never has there been such a joyous day since he lost to the Rock. I’m not gloating, it’s just nice to see WWE portray Cena as weak once in a blue moon. Cena won by DQ but as we all know and have been reminded to death, the title can’t change hands that way. The match ended when Big ‘Bore’ Show speared Cena and then the Rock ran in and was laid out by a ‘GTS’ from Punk. Brilliant set up for later down the line, but Punk should have been allowed to pin Cena clean.
By the looks of it, Punk is on the turn to the dark side. A turn that hopefully will come full circle at SummerSlam. From his actions before Raw 1,000 went off the air, it really does look like Punk will be WWE Champion until Royal Rumble and beyond. Which means Daniel Bryan won’t be champion anytime soon, but as long as they keep giving us brilliant matches I doubt it will do Bryan any harm. We’re set then for an epic Punk title reign that presumably, with the Rock’s schedule, won’t end until Wrestlemania 29. With this kind of material and this kind of feud, Punk could prove to us all that he is indeed, ‘the best in the world’.
WWE once again did most things right. That’s two huge occasions in a row that they’ve got it almost right. Not bad going. Raw 1,000 did more to prepare us and WWE for the rest of the year and beyond, than Wrestlemania did. It set up feuds, cemented legacies, built stars and gave us that nostalgic feeling. The only fault was WWE didn’t change the dull set and they buried people they should have pushed. On the best raw for years, I doubt that will matter right now.
To mark the 1,000 episode of Raw and of course this blog going well over a 1,000 readers I myself will be marking the change. Soon, you’ll be seeing a brand new background with all the stars of today and yesterday and we will relive some classic memories from the golden era of WWE. I would like to hear from all of you about your memories of WWE / WWF and which you thought was better. I will also be tell you guys what it meant to me.
Until then, we’ve watched a 1,000 episodes of the worlds longest running television programme. Monday Night Raw, Raw is War and finally just Raw. Based on what number 1,000 showed us. Here’s to WWE. Here’s to Raw. And here’s to 1,000 more.
Onwards and Upwards...
