1. First of all, let me just say that Big Show’s current run is probably the best thing he’s done since boogie boarding on his dad’s casket (although that’s not saying much). I said on twitter that the opening segment was the best in decades based only on the face that Big Show got fired during it. However, seeing as how he “magically” found a way to come through Gorilla later the same night, it killed my thoughts on the opening segment.
2. I’m still kinda wishing they would have Punk to move onto something else and maybe we’ll revisit this next time Brock returns. However, at least now Punk has a little back up with R-Truth. Not the greatest of backups but it’s something and probably was just for tonight. Still, maybe we might get serious Truth and that’s gotta be better than rapping Truth.
3. The Total Divas n00bs made their big Raw in-ring debut tonight. Well, at least one of them did while the other never got tagged in, which is probably for the best considering how terrible the red-head did. And it’s not like the other team was great either, Aksana and Rosa Mendes looked like it was their first match too. Thank goodness for decent veterans like Natty and Alicia (decent, not great) that were able to go ahead and wrap that train wreck up. I’m sure my boy Jeff will have plenty to say on this matter on this week’s Guys and Divas coming to you later right here on Pulse Wrestling.
4. Heh, crazy Bob Backlund doesn’t know where the exit it. Heh.
5. Not gonna lie, I was giddy when Ricardo was put in a match. And yeah, a roll up win was about what I figured all he would get in but HE WON!
6. John Cena is coming back after only being away for 2 months? Ratings can’t be suffering that bad, can they? But at least they’re keeping him away from the WWE Championship picture, for now.
7. Bray Wyatt is going after the Miz now? Haven’t his parents suffered enough? Also, I’m not sure how that segment was suppose to go but I hope something went wrong and didn’t actually plan for it to be that awkward. Just when I thought Bray was making improvements after his match at Battleground, he gets paired up with the death-stroke of Miz’s anti-momentum.
8. Ryder is even jobbing to Fandango now. It’s about that time to pack it in.
9. I was going to reiterate on the point of WWE going to have to turn Cesaro face whether they like it or not, specifically since they keep featuring the swing and it’s still over with the crowd (and for good reason). But then I was suddenly reminded of how WWE did the same thing when Cesaro went on this streak of hitting The Neutralizer to really large wrestlers and would be featured on all the other shows for doing so. Of course, that didn’t go over nearly as well as the swing has but still, nothing is for certain.
10. My best friend hasn’t been much of a wrestling fan at all since we were middle school (late 90s, early 2000s). Tonight, I was surprised to get a text from him saying that he was watching Raw. He was doing so because I heard Goldust was having a match and was a name he recognized from our earlier years. During the match, he expressed how he was impressed at the shape Goldust was in. However, as the match went on, his texts started to turn away from Goldust and sent me the following: “I don’t know who the hell this YES YES YES guy is but I like him.” I explained that he was talking about Daniel Bryan and after I finished typing this, I will be sending him a ton of links of Daniel Bryan matches (as per his request). I think this shows just how great Bryan actually is. You take a fan that may not be a wrestling fan anymore but still holds those Attitude Era is such high regards (like a lot of us rightfully do) and show him today’s product. Most of the time, you’ll get the “it was so much better back then” reaction or “Rock and Stone Cold was better than current wrestler A, B, and C” and sometimes they would have legit points. However, you show that same person the current content that includes Daniel Bryan and it’s a completely different reaction. It comes down to the fact that good wrestling is simply good wrestling.
I know that final thought didn’t have much to do with tonight’s Raw but I thought it was an interesting observation.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
