PWA RAW Review: 03.28.11

GO HOME SHOW TO WRESTLEMANIA REVIEW

The Opening:
Nice to see the hometown guy, CM Punk sitting in the middle of the ring. And he attacks the crowd to get a heel response. Then he rightfully so, turns his eyes to his Wrestlemania opponent, Randal Orton. Hopefully they will minimize footage from last week especially when there is so much to do tonight with not a lot of time. As CM Punk is talking it looks like they used the white ropes for their go home show to Wrestlemania. Randy finally comes out and is doing a very good job of selling the shot to his knee last week. It is nice to see them have some physicality before Wrestlemania and not just a stare down. No matter what CM Punk does, the crowd is clearly behind him and it was nice to see him get the upper hand before Wrestlemania. The build up for this match is complete and they’ve done a pretty good job with it.

Match 1: Edge (World Heavyweight Champion) & Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio & Brodus Clay (w. Ricardo Rodriguez)
Any Attitude Era wrestling fan should be marking out over this match. They have done a better job this week cranking up the material on Raw. Good back and forth action with the 7 time Tag Team Champions pulling out the victory. Alberto Del Rio gets the last laugh on both Edge and Christian by putting them in the arm breaker. Nice final build up for this match.

PWA Rating: B+

TRISH STRATUS & SNOOKI 1
They show Snooki and Trish Stratus in Jersey at a bar...wonder what is going to happen?

Michael Cole, Raw GM, Jerry Lawler, Video Package
Michael Cole plugs the iPad and sets up Jerry Lawler vs. Jack Swagger later. And we go to ANOTHER video package of The Undertaker an HHH feud. WWE is blowing it with this matches build up.

Match 2: Justin Gabriel (Tag Team Champion) (w. THE CORRE) vs. Santino (w. Big Show, Kane, Kozlov w/ Tamina)
As the entrances are taking place, they announce an 8 man tag match for Wrestlemania. The match is very quick however a great full face turn for Kane after the match is over, and perhaps the biggest pop of the night so far. The match did its job for their match at Wrestlemania. 3 Down, 6 To Go.

PWA Rating: C

THE UNDERTAKER and HHH: Face-to-Face
It is about time they are both in the same ring at the same time. Too bad it didn’t happen 2 weeks ago when people were starting to get bored with this feud. Undertaker comes out first which is an interesting decision because if HHH comes out first then you can have the bong and darkness make The Undertaker appear. Wow then HHH comes right out after, don’t believe this has been seen before. What we haven’t seen is Undertaker using his powers to stop HHH’s entrance. Very nicely done. Then a huge mark out moment for a surprise appearance of Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels is adding a new dynamic to this match, that it needed a few weeks back. Good to see that Shawn Michaels hasn’t lost the promo skills. This feud has taken a turn for the better. HHH showing the respect towards The Undertaker was nice. And then he tells The Undertaker “It’s Time.” WOW! HHH delivered a great promo tonight, almost forgot he had it in him. The Undertaker still takes off the WWE symbol on the microphone. Nice to see The Undertaker show respect for HHH. Then The Undertaker turns his attention to Shawn Michaels and just lashes out at him and tells Shawn that he ended his career. Shawn goes for Sweet Chin Music and Undertaker reverses it and HHH stops him. Then Shawn walks out on Hunter looking for support. The Undertaker got the last laugh in this promo. The interaction really turned around the match for Wrestlemania and has HHH winning as a believable option. 4 Down, 5 To Go.

Match 3: Jack Swagger (w. Michael Cole) vs. Jerry Lawler
This was barely a match but finally Jerry Lawler has some momentum heading into Wrestlemania. Jack Swagger didn’t look weak either because technically he picked up the win. 5 Down, 4 To Go.

PWA Rating: C

VICKIE GUERRERO
Vickie brilliantly comes out to John Morrison’s music and does his entrance.

Match 5: Dolph Ziggler & Sheamus (United States Champion) (w. Vickie Guerrero) vs. John Morrison & Daniel Bryan
This match takes care of 2 of the 4 remaining feuds for Wrestlemania. John Morrison continues his losing streak heading into Wrestlemania. Hopefully he can turn it around at Wrestlemania. But a typical match for Raw, a Raw that is running out of time, and there is no such thing as a bad Daniel Bryan match.

PWA Rating: C+

TRISH STRATUS & SNOOKI 2
Trish Stratus and Snooki have a “live” segment at a bar in Jersey. LayCool shows up and it’s a Jerry Springer style street fight. Snooki-mania is still exciting from a pop culture view. They WWE should try editing words and not bleeping them because that proves that they aren’t live. But glad to see that Snooki is still swearing up a storm and Trish must have caught that too.

THE ROCK, JOHN CENA, THE MIZ
WWE is saving their money feud for last and with only 10 DVR minutes left, one has to think that this might be a Raw that goes 11:20pm. The Rock is out first to a HUGE pop, HBK and Kane received similar pops earlier. Yes Kane did when he completed his face turn. They announced him as The Rock, not Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, which poses the question has Dwayne been bitten by the WWE bug again? Another question is why can The Rock get away with saying Bitch, but Snooki can’t? Did The Rock just call Cena a homeless Power Ranger? Did some fan really bring a box of Fruity Pebbles? John Cena comes out to some huge boo’s just like Wrestlemania 22, this is the city that created the doubt of John Cena and the reason John Cena should be a heel. John Cena is giving The Rock a compliment-fest. Not exactly good for the feud. Huge Cena Sucks chats…..HUGE! John tries to turn it around on The Rock with valid points, but the crowd isn’t having any of it. We are already 5 minutes over DVR time. Is John Cena really bringing God into wrestling? Didn’t Vince McMahon try that 5 years ago and fail? The Rock starts to turn violent…cue The Miz with Alex Riley. The Miz gets in a few good lines and then Alex Riley attacks The Rock. The Rock comes back and nails a DDT and a HUGE peoples elbow. Then John Cena Attitude Adjust THE ROCK…and get a HUGE HUGE BOO from the crowd. What a great way to end Raw.

STOCK RISING (aka exceeds expectations)
1. HHH/The Undertaker/HBK promo
2. Kane’s Pop
3. The Rock/John Cena/The Miz promo

STOCK DOWN (aka doesn’t meet expectations)
1. John Morrison’s Losing Streak

PWA Raw Rating: A- (Last Week : C)


THE PWA EDITOR REVIEW:
This week’s Raw provided something I thought I would never see again. A real Peoples Elbow and THE ROCK getting physical. After an embarrassing episode last week, WWE Raw this week was all pedal to the medal. This week’s Raw jumped back up and received its highest Grade since we started a few weeks back. The surprise of SHAWN MICHAELS, the tagging of EDGE and CHRISTIAN, and THE ROCK getting physical are huge all on their own but combined, it was perhaps the best written Raw in a long long time. The WWE was able to get all of their feuds for Wrestlemania over except REY MYSTERIO vs. CODY RHODES. That will be touched upon on Smackdown most likely. All of the feuds moved forward, but none more than HHH vs. THE UNDERTAKER. They finally got their act together and put doubt in our mind that the streak could end, especially because SHAWN MICHAELS told HHH he couldn’t which in WWE terms means don’t expect him to, but always expect the unexpected. I now know that the CHICAGO CROWD is my favorite all time. After THE ROCK, KANE surprised me with the second or third biggest pop of the night. Disappointed that STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN wasn’t at the go home edition of RAW, however I am glad that SNOOKI was at least there via a taped promo. Look for my prediction and review of the feud for every Wrestlemania match this week by Friday. Also I am putting the finishing touches of my article on WHY THE UNDERTAKER STREAK SHOULD BE BROKEN AT WRESTLEMANIA. And at the end of that article I will be posting my next topic which will be equally as controversial as this one if not more. The PWA team will not be reviewing WRESTLEMANIA, because that should be the one event wrestling fans just watch…so enjoy it and we look forward to the next RAW REVIEW in Atlanta.

THE PWA Team.

PWA RAW Review: 03.21.11

HERE IS THIS WEEKS RAW REVIEW

The Opening:
Very nice having Michael Cole come out dressed up like Jerry Lawler. Just we saw this last week with The Miz coming out as The Rock. WWE creative really needs to find different ideas and use them, and then the crowd will give you more of a reaction when they aren’t expecting it. The crowd in Pittsburgh isn’t dumb enough to fall for the fake JR music and Cole dressed up as him. Jerry should not beat up Cole until Wrestlemania because we all know it will happen then.

They start right up with HHH coming out and well he did nothing the entire time he was out there to move the feud with The Undertaker forward. He repeated the same stuff they started on 02.21.11, which was a month ago. This feud has hit a standstill and will continue to go downhill unless they start doing something different. Some suggestions would be giving us a reason to think that HHH can beat The Undertaker, and where is the paranormal activity that has been a staple for The Undertaker for the last few years? Ted Dibiase coming out and getting owned was pretty pointless because we saw HHH do the same thing 3 weeks ago on Raw to Sheamus. WWE needs to pick up the slack on this feud before they lose all of us before Wrestlemania especially if it is the Main Event.

Match 1: Sheamus (US Champion) vs. Evan Bourne
This match was very quick but it got to the point of Sheamus extracting revenge for 3 weeks ago. The after match was much better and now we have a Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan match for the United States Championship at Wrestlemania. The positive of this match is that it was better than The Miz vs. The Great Khali that opened Raw last week.

PWA Rating: C

Randy Orton Coming In:
Randy Orton is setting up the feud with CM Punk later this evening and there seems to be something with his bus or family later in the show.

Match 2: Eve Torres (Divas Champion) vs. Maryse
Another non title match on Raw. Michael Cole once again cheapens women’s wrestling by talking during their match. Vince should realize that he is killing his “Diva’s” division, but at least the champion Eve got a nice smack across Cole’s face in. Cole should realize that he has a ton of heat and that he shouldn’t be going below him to get a heel reaction. He needs to go above and beyond what he has been doing and not regress. This match did very little to help WWE out in the future and felt like a filler especially because Eve pulled out the win.

PWA Rating: D

Match 3: The CORRE (Tag Team Champions) (w. Barrett & Jackson) vs. Santino and Kozlov (w. Tamina)
A third non title match on Raw, this has to be a theme to tonight’s show. This match was over as quickly as it started. The WWE Tag Team Champions are looking impressive since they lost and then won their Tag Team Championships. Kane and Big Show come out with their combined music and they appear to have a 4-on-4 match for Wrestlemania (CORRE vs. Show/Kane/Santino/Kozlov). Very disappointed with Kozlov being involved in this match especially when you have Diesel sitting on the sideline and an Intercontinental Champion with nothing to do.

PWA Rating: C

JOHN CENA:
They have to recap the interaction between The Rock, John Cena, and The Miz in case we all forgot what happened over the last few weeks. Darn John Cena won’t be there tonight, what will the show do without him? John Cena say a lot of nothing other than he underestimated The Miz. Michael Cole keeps us in suspense for the next segment.

MICHAEL COLE:
Not as good of a segment as last week, however they did move the feud further. Would have liked to see someone else from Jerry Lawler’s past; i.e. The Kat or Bret Hart. Since there were no surprises this week on Raw so far, that means there will be one later in the show because Vince said he would have a surprise every week until Wrestlemania. Michael Cole is the WWE’s best heel right now, Vince you need to have your wrestlers follow his lead to get a non announcer heel to be your number 1 guy.

Match 4.1: Dolph Ziggler (w. Laycool and Vickie) vs. John Morrison (w. Trish Stratus)
After a recap of last week, everyone should be pumped that Snooki is in the WWE and the main stream attention they are getting for this. Snooki has to be on Raw next week for the go home Raw for Wrestlemania. Since Dolph got the victory 2 weeks ago, John Morrison has to get the victory here. Then the GM chimes in with… John Morrison & Trish Stratus vs. Dolph Ziggler, Laycool & Vickie Guerrero.

Match 4.2: John Morrison & Trish Stratus vs. Dolph Ziggler, Laycool & Vickie Guerrero
It is very exciting for Trish to have two matches in consecutive weeks. Too much to handle a 4-on-2 handicap match for Trish and John, if they would have won, it would have made the 3-on-3 match at Wrestlemania look weaker. There was some good wrestling in these matches and it furthered the story very well.

PWA Rating: B-

Match 5: Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio
Interesting to see a face vs. face match, but Randy Orton seems to have the mannerisms of a heel and has turned into a face like all the good characters do, naturally. The best wrestling match of the night ends in a count out of Randy Orton. CM Punk does something to Randy Orton’s bus and his family. His wife just watched the whole attack, not a normal reaction. It is interesting to see that WWE has such a problem getting things to flow even 2 years later, his wife looked like Barbie and had blond hair when HHH broke into their house before their Wrestlemania 25 match.

PWA Rating: C+

THE MIZ: REWRITES MIZ-TORY
Alex Riley is out explaining why he is back with The Miz. First though is where is the WWE Championship? They unveil a new WWE Championship with the W turned upside down to an M. Hope this leads to a new WWE Championship the night after Wrestlemania. John Cena showing up was good since he finally got some retribution for the previous weeks. They go out with The Rock on Raw next week. And that ends a lackluster Raw.

STOCK RISING (aka exceeds expectations)
1. 3-on-3 Intergender Tag Team Match at Wrestlemania
2. Miz vs. John Cena

STOCK DOWN (aka doesn’t meet expectations)
1. Undertaker vs. Triple H (for the second week in a row)
2. WWE Raw

PWA Raw Rating: C (Last Week : B+)


THE PWA EDITOR REVIEW:
This week’s Raw was a total regression from last week’s episode. The WWE should be embarrassed with the way that Raw went tonight. Tonight’s Raw lacked content. It felt like the WWE was just coasting to the go home edition of Raw. This week’s Raw regressed over a letter grade, which should be alarming and we will see the results on next week’s Raw rating. Every Raw feud moved forward except UNDERTAKER/HHH. HHH and The UNDERTAKER cannot have a feud on one face to face interaction and none since 02.21.11. They expect the videos and promos to carry the feud into Wrestlemania. I for one don’t think they can fix it by next week’s face to face. If this is the Main Event of Wrestlemania, everyone should be disappointed. The feud that stuck out the most to me this week was MORRISON/STRARUS/SNOOKI vs. DOLPH/LAYCOOL. They have a match with star power outside the wrestling business and it can only help the WWE long term. I for one hope SNOOKI is at Raw week in Chicago. Everyone involved at Wrestlemania needs to be present at next week’s Raw, including STONE COLD. If that happens I will be excited for next week’s show in Chicago, if not they might as well sell their TV slot to something more useful, like the Dog Show. After Raw next week I will be posting my predictions for Wrestlemania and finally posting my article on WHY THE UNDERTAKER STREAK SHOULD BE BROKEN AT WRESTLEMANIA. Expect both to be up by Friday April 1^st.

THE PWA Team.

PWA Match Rating Key

A+: Provided exceptional value to the show, future storylines, and the in ring performance was excellent and told a story by itself. Also the match had an exciting finish. (i.e. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24)

A: Provided great value to the show, future storylines, and the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. Also the match had an exciting finish.

A-: Provided good value to the show, future storylines, and the in ring performance was good and told a story by itself. Also the match had an well executed finish.

B+: Provided exceptional value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was excellent and told a story by itself. AND the match had an exciting finish. All of the OR’s not met at an exceptional level are Greats.

B: Provided great value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. AND the match had an exciting finish. All of the OR’s were not met at a great level are Goods.

B-: Provided good value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. AND the match had a well executed finish. All of the OR’s not met at a good level are around expectation but do not exceed it.

C+: Provided reasonable value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. AND the match had a finish that didn’t exceed expectations. All of the OR’s not met at a reasonable value level are just under expectations but do not meet it.

C: Provided some value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. AND the match had a finish that didn’t exceed expectations. All of the OR’s not met at a some value level are under expectations.

C-: Provided little value to the show OR future storylines OR the in ring performance was great and told a story by itself. AND the match had a finish that didn’t exceed expectations. All of the OR’s not met at a little value level are well under expectations.

D: Provided little value to the show OR future storylines OR contained poor in ring performance. AND the match had a poor executed finish. All of the OR’s were nowhere near the expectations.

F (No Rating): Provided no value to the show, future storylines, and contained poor in ring performance (i.e. Sting vs. Jeff Hardy at Victory Road 2011), therefore does not fall on the rating scale.

PWA RAW Review: 03.14.11

HERE IS THE FIRST RAW REVIEW, look for a post later tomorrow on what the letter grades are based on.

The Opening:
What a great way to start this week’s episode of RAW…with THE ROCK! And they did a nice little skit with “JOHN CENA” showing up and having a face to face with THE ROCK. THE ROCK told “JOHN CENA” how it is, “you’re not as talented as THE ROCK.” This was shot in THE ROCKS house because we can see his belts in the background, and it was a good fit. Does everyone see how much publicity Fruity Pebbles are getting? Then it was good to see THE ROCK get serious and address THE MIZ from his actions of last week. Nice way to get the crowd into the show right off the bat.

Nice to see TRISH STRATUS backstage, and then MICHAEL COLE in his little bubble or “Cole Mine” as he calls it was a entertaining way to have COLE and LAWLER announce together.

THE MIZ:
THE MIZ adds nothing new to JOHN CENA’s promo from last week. It is still interesting where this is going to go from here, just hope they don’t drop the ball on this one. Then the RAW GM laptop goes off and informs us of 2 more matches this evening; JOHN CENA vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO and THE MIZ vs. THE GREAT KHALI. It would have been nicer to see THE MIZ vs. THE ROCK because it’s been about 10-11 months since THE ROCK has been in the ring. It was great to see JERRY LAWLER read the e-mail and COLE whimper about it.

Match 1: THE MIZ vs. THE GREAT KHALI:
A very short match, that was dominated by THE GREAT KHALI, until ALEX RILEY makes his return to help THE MIZ. The GREAT KHALI won by DQ. THE MIZ then goes crazy on KHALI’s back, even busting him open and the WWE showed blood on national television. Great to see the wrestlers be able to step up their aggression again, to think people don’t bleed from getting hit, makes it look less real.

PWA Rating: Not Rated due to not being longer than JEFF HARY vs. STING from the previous night.

Nice backstage segment with JOHN MORRISON, SNOOKIE, DOLPH ZIGGLER, and VICKY GUERREO, with SNOOKIE getting a nice pop for dissing VICKY GUERRERO.

Match 2: UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP: DANIEL BRYAN (c) vs. KING? SHEAMUS
Going into this match the thought is either SHEAMUS to Smackdown OR SHEAMUS as United States Champion. After a decent match with a good finish, DANIEL BRYAN drops the UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP to SHEAMUS. Wonder why they would downgrade SHEAMUS to a upper midcard after spending 2010 in the main event picture, but none the less he picks up one of his first wins in 2011. Hmmm a guy getting a title shot after a double digit losing streak, does that make the US CHAMPIONSHIP mean anything? Not Really, but on a positive there is no such thing as a bad DANIEL BRYAN Match.

PWA Rating: B

MICHAEL COLE’s Segment:
We get treated to a RETURN, a return of JERRY LAWLER’s Son BRIAN CHRISTOPHER aka GRANDMASTA SEXAY. BRIAN CHRISTOPHER and JERRY LAWLER had an amazing interaction and is furthering the match between MICHAEL COLE and JERRY LAWLER. Very emotional and felt very real, then when it was a depressing moment, then JIM ROSS’ music hit and out comes GOOD OL’ JR. JIM ROSS cuts a promo of his own, again furthering the storyline at Wrestlemania between LAWLER and COLE. This segment was the best on the show so far and JACK SWAGGER and MICHAEL COLE leaving JIM ROSS and JERRY LAWLER laying was a powerful way to end the segment, with the fans rightfully so chanting “AUSTIN AUSTIN AUSTIN…”

Everyone should be excited that EDGE and CHRISTIAN are getting a WWE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP Match on Smackdown

Match 3: RANDY ORTON vs. MASON RYAN
The Hometown Boy, RANDY ORTON easily defeats MASON RYAN and makes the match at Mania officially one-on-one. Not really too much to add to this other than if you’ve seen the last 3 weeks of raw, it’s the same thing. Good Stare down between PUNK and ORTON.

PWA Rating: C+

SNOOKIE gets RAW:
Nice to see ZACH RYDER get on RAW, even though it was brief. What a brief promo by SNOOKIE, perhaps RAW is running tight on time.

Match 4: TRISH STRAUS vs. VICKIE GUERRERO
This match really never picks up. There is quick interference by DOLPH ZIGGLER, JOHN MORRISON, LAYCOOL, and SNOOKIE. But in the end VICKIE GUERRERO win a job back with WWE. Good setup for a 6 person tag match at WRESTLEMANIA. SNOOKIE carries a little more star power than KELLY KELLY, so that was a good call by the WWE.

PWA Rating: Not Rated (see Match 1)

Drew Carey into the Hall of Fame, and boy he has really thinned out over the years.

Match 5: JOHN CENA vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO
When a match with the WWE starts at 11pm, this match cannot be long. The last commercial is taken at 11:05pm, which means overtime. Nice tease of THE ROCK, and THE MIZ really looked like he shaved his head. THE MIZ delivered a message with the rock bottom on CENA. THE MIZ then goes on to destroy CENA which has catapulted him back into the WWE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH at WRESTLEMANIA after weeks of it being JOHN CENA and THE ROCK. THE MIZ then busts open his second wrestler of the night. RAW should be exciting next week.

PWA Rating: B-

STOCK RISING (aka exceeds expectations)
1. MICHAEL COLE
2. THE MIZ

STOCK DOWN (aka doesn’t meet expectations)
1. THE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP
2. UNDERTAKER vs. TRIPLE H

PWA RAW RATING: B+

THE PWA EDITOR REVIEW:
This week’s RAW has the PWA looking forward to next week. The WWE should look into making the 4 weeks before WRESTLEMANIA a 3 hour program. They squeezed in 5 feuds into tonight’s show, 6 if you count the promo videos for UNDERTAKER/HHH. The feud that progresses the most this week was the MICHAEL COLE vs. JERRY LAWLER feud. They brought 2 guests that the WWE Universe remembers from past years (BRIAN LAWLER & JIM ROSS). COLE has more heat than ever in his little box and that should progress again next week. The feud that regresses this week is the TRIPLE H vs. The Undertaker feud and that is because neither was live and they both haven’t been live together since 2.21.11. We are going on a month without real progress in the feud, WWE needs to play catch up on this one. Runner Up for feud that progresses the most is JOHN CENA vs. THE MIZ & (THE ROCK). THE MIZ stepped up his game for the third week in a row and I look for him to continue that success next week. I for one am looking forward to next week’s RAW in Pittsburgh, and this year’s WRESTLEMANIA CARD.

THE PWA Team.