{Ed. Note: I apologize for the lateness of this post. If you caught my note earlier in the week on Twitter, you know why and hopefully this column makes sense and doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Thanks for your understanding. – Harrak}
1. Switching Triple H’s music back to the “King Of Kings” track was a subtle but smart move. The audience is pre-conditioned to pop for Triple H’s “The Game” music so at least this gives the audience a different sound to relate to a different character. I’m also surprised that I really have no problem with The Shield being HHH’s stooges. Once they accomplished their immediate goals of winning WWE championships, there wasn’t a clear direction for any of them. Now they’re involved in the main event storyline and even if they are booked to look weaker than Triple H or Randy Orton, they are still sharing optimum screen-time and have been placed in a prime position to turn babyface if the WWE felt to move in that direction.
2. I never thought I’d hear that big of a pop for “Flight Of The Valkyries”. For Daniel Bryan, yes but for that music, hell no. Either way, it was a great opening segment, even if a lot of Bryan’s lines were just repeated from SmackDown. If you haven’t seen Bryan’s opening segment with Randy Orton from SmackDown, I highly suggest looking it up. Either way, it was a strong way to open the show and a great tease for the rest of the night as most people are going to be glued to the TV to see Bryan face each member of The Shield.
3. Curtis Axel still isn’t great on the mic but he is improving rather than getting worse or showing no improvement at all judging from that backstage segment. And for a match that shouldn’t have been too exciting, CM Punk’s entrance felt like a big moment, like its a rare appearance. This could be a testament to how well this Paul Heyman/CM Punk is catching on. I have no idea where they are going with this feud or how its going to blow off but its making for great TV right now. Axel seems to be soaking up a lot of experience from this feud as well. Even if he keeps getting jobbed to Punk, it looks like he’s learning and improving each week.
4. THAT was the “Pipe Bomb”-esque promo everyone has been talking about since Monday? Sure it essentially turned AJ Lee babyface since she called the WWE out on everything that is wrong with the Divas Division & said things that could relate to a lot of the females in the WWE system but I don’t think it was as good as everyone seems to be saying it was. I honestly didn’t hear a single “worked shoot” comment at all. Everything that came out of AJ’s mouth could have been said by “AJ Lee”, the WWE Diva OR April Mendez, the woman who plays “AJ”. There was nothing groundbreaking, nothing obscenely personal and nothing that blatantly crossed the line from fiction into reality. Sure it was nice to see a Diva given this platform & actually make an impact on Raw but I’m sorry, it just wasn’t as fantastic as many believe it was.
5. No air-brushed tuxedo for Richardo Rodriguez? I’m disappointed. The match itself was alright and I’m ok with Rob Van Dam against Alberto Del Rio at Night Of Champions. I just hope they don’t put the belt on RVD. He’s getting good reactions from the live audiences and his matches are definitely better than when he was in TNA but I can’t see him carrying the title and fending off challengers. His one and only WWE title reigned ended rather abruptly (due to his own stupidity) so we didn’t really get to see him as a defending champion but I can’t really picture him as a top championship guy.
6. The home video “Did You Know?” graphic was hysterical considering the DVD they showcased, “The Greatest Superstars Of The 90s”, I just picked up at Walmart from the $5 bin. No wonder it was #1.
7. Hey, it’s Christian versus Randy Orton! Is it 2011? I could change a lot of bad shit if we went back in time 2 years… Anyway, thank God Orton was in the ring with Christian cause I think he would have chewed out anyone else who missed his signature clotheslines/powerslam spot. The entire match went on FAR too long though, especially since it seemed like they were blown up near the end. As much as I LOVE the refocus on in-ring talent, this match should have been given half the time and it probably would have come off better. Plus you could have added another match on the show – maybe focusing on someone who hasn’t been with the company for over a decade. And damn does Randy Orton have terrible luck with cars. Come to think of it, has a motor vehicle ever featured on Raw lasted the night in one piece?
8. I’m so glad they aired this video on Raw and not just on WWE.com. The “Sister Abigail” promo video, story and delivery by Bray Wyatt was just fantastic. Everything was just spot on and creepy as hell. Plus, how many finishers can you name that actually has a back story behind their names?!
9. A handicap elimination match at Night Of Champions? That’s different. I wonder if the idea is to debut a new “Paul Heyman Guy” to save Heyman here.
10. There’s so much to talk about in this main event so I apologize if this thought rambles a bit. First, Seth Rollins was definitely limping at one point during the match and it was the same knee that he looked to have injured last week. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is working through something since The Shield is in such a prominent position now. The entire match was stellar but there were two spots that REALLY stood out: to start, that was the best selling of a suicide dive I’ve ever seen and I’m sure Michael Cole saw his life flash before his eyes. AND A DAMN TOP ROPE GERMAN SUPLEX! I’m shocked that was cleared by the agents (if they even tried to clear that). I’m actually glad we didn’t get to see too much of Bryan versus each member of The Shield. There’s at least 3 weeks worth of main event matches there that they could have blown in one week. Now hopefully we’ll get one-on-one matches between Bryan & Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins again. The addition of having all the Superstars on the rampway was a good call, especially once Triple H entered. We now have the visual of Triple H as the sole leader of this new regime without a McMahon in the background. And with Daniel Bryan bringing up Triple H’s past “rebel” attitude, it really solidified this “new” Triple H as the new evil “Mr. McMahon”.
