RYTMAN’S REVIEW: WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW 11/26/2012

MATCH RESULTS

RYBACK DEF. TITUS O’NEIL – Total domination by Ryback, until Darien Young interfered by grabbing Ryback’s ankle.  O’Neil hit one inverted Power Bomb for a brief one-count. Still, the match ended the same way all Ryback matches end; power-bomb, shell-shock, three-count.

After the match, Ryback refused to leave the ring until he got his hands on WWE Heavyweight Champion C.M. Punk, Paul Heyman, or the three men who jumped him two days in a row.  A line of security guards come-out, but Ryback tossed the biggest one first, and the rest scattered.

RAW Supervisor Vicki Guerro came out to order him out of the ring, Ryback told her to shut up (which won him a ton of new fans,) and demanded revenge.  Vicki gave him a match against Punk at TLC.  Ryback demanded that it be made a TLC match (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs.) Vicki agreed, and Ryback left the ring.

ALBERTO DEL RIO DEF. THE GREAT KAHLI – This match was set up with a pre-recorded backstage segment, where Rosa Mendes demanded an apology from Hornswoggle, for squirting water in her face, with trick flowers last week.  Hornswoggle called her conceited, and Alberto Del Rio stepped in, offering to beat him up.  Kahli stepped in to scare him off.  Kahli actually dominates most of the match, but a distraction by Roberto Rodriguez (Del Rio’s personal ring announcer,) sets up Kahli for an attack from behind.  Del Rio hits the arm-bar for a win by submission.

TAMINA DEF. ALICIA FOX – Basically, Tamina slaps Alicia around and ends this with a splash of the top, for a three-count.

INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION KOFI KINGSTON DEF. TENSAI – Wade Barrett, Kofi’s next challenger, Wade Barrett joins the commentary team at ringside.  Tensai’s size advantage gives him an edge for a good amount of time, but Kofi hits a big kick and a flying body press for the three-count.

After the match, Barrett walked into the ring, gave Kofi the title belt, and then walked off without incident.

REY MYSTERIO DEF. WWE TAG-TEAM CHAMPION DANIEL BRYAN – One of the best matches on TV this year.  Both men relied on their agility and quick last-second escapes and counters to keep the tide turning back and forth.  Bryan focused on beat-downs and wearing down the arm, Mysterio countered with bursts of fast-paced offense.  Match ends with a 619/Dropping a Dime combo by Mysterio for a pin on Bryan.

JOHN CENA DEF. DOLPH ZIGGLER – This match was set up after a segment with Vicki Guerro offering Cena and AJ matching bathrobes (see below.) People, who criticize Cena for his “five moves of doom,” need to acknowledge Ziggler does the same thing (if not everybody in WWE,).  That said, this was a good, solid match.  One point of contention is Cena NO-SELLING the “bad knee,” until a specific spot at the end.  Going for the “five knuckle shuffle,” Cena stumbles out of the ring, the ref and another WWE official check to see if he can continue, while Ziggler exposes a turnbuckle.  AJ runs out to stop him and Vicki runs out to pull AJ off the ring.  The ladies have a stare-down while Ziggler goes after Cena with his MiTB briefcase.  Cena ducks Ziggler’s swing and hooks the “AA,” for a three-count.  Cena celebrates with AJ, FORGETTING ALL ABOUT THE BAD KNEE.

SHEAMUS DEF. U.S. CHAMPION ANTONIO CESARO – This was a straight up brawl between two big workhorses.  Highlight of the match is Cesaro catching Sheamus and hoisting him up, and dropping him hard.  Picture a combo of Lex Luger’s “torture rack” and Ryback’s “Shell-Shock.” Match ends with Sheamus escaping the “neutralizer” with a back-drop and a Brogue-kick to Cesaro.  Cesaro goes out to the floor and gets counted out.

World Heavyweight Champion Big Show comes out with a chair.  Sheamus grabs the mike and tells Big Show he will be happy to retire him at TLC, and just how barbaric he can be.  Show responds by destroying the chair with his bare hands.

DAMIEN SANDOW DEF. ZACK RYDER – Not much more than filler.  Ryder had a decent showing here, but the match ends with Sandow using his neck-breaker variant to get the three-count.

Side Note: Ring announcer Justin Roberts waited for Zack Ryder to get in the ring before announcing him, Michael Cole slipped back into “heel” mode to give him grief about it.

WWE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION C.M. PUNK DEF. KANE – Our Main Event for the evening.  And yes, this did take the show over three hours, again.  There is a weird spot in the match when Punk slides to the outside, and starts favoring his right knee.  Kane was as close to Punk as THESEWORDSARETOEACHOTHER but did NOTHING to him.  Kane let Punk slide back in and pull him neck first into the top rope.  Now here’s the weird thing, the announcers (Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler,) never acknowledged ANY of this, even though Punk was right in front of the camera, limping and acting like he was hurt for real the whole time.  It’s weird because this is, to my understanding, standard procedure when someone gets legit hurt during a match, gloss over it, don’t call it, and keep the show going.  So, I have to wonder if Punk really was hurt.  The match ended when the three NXT talents, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Reigns (now called “The Shield”) came out to distract Kane.  Punk hit the GTS and got the three.

After the match, the Shield teased going for Punk, but pilled on Kane.  Daniel Bryan tried to make the save, but got beat down.  Ryback charged down and took over on the Shield.  Punk took a cheap shot at Ryback, but Ryback caught him.  Ryback went for a power-bomb, but Reigns took him down with a spear.  Monday Night RAW ends with C.M. Punk holding his belt in the air; and his foot on Ryback’s chest; for the second time in a week.

ANGLES AND SEGMENTS

1.) RYBACK/VICKI – Our first interview segment would have to be Vicki Guerro trying to talk Ryback out of the ring after his match (setting up his match w/Punk at TLC.) Not a shining moment for either one of them.  Huge gaps between the dialogue and you could tell they didn’t talk over each other when they were supposed to.  Seriously, don’t give Ryback more lines than he needs.

2.) Backstage: Hornswoggle, Rosa, Del Rio, and KHALI – Basic segment just to set up their match, seemed pretty damn elaborate for a match that wasn’t anything special.

3.) GM’S OFFICE: VICKI, HEYMAN, PUNK – Punk came in to complain about having to face Ryback, Heyman suggested Vicki was trying to compensate for her bias against Cena and AJ, and Vicki flat out accused Punk of calling in the “Shield” to cover his ass.  Vicki sets up a match between Punk and the winner of a RAW-active Twitter Poll, #WWEKane or #WWEBryan (see above.) Interesting to see Punk get the shaft from a “fellow” heel; it gives Vicki an extra character dimension, and it makes you wonder what it is EVERYBODY hates about Punk.

4.) THE SHEILD SPEAKS – We see a pre-recorded interview with Michael Cole and the three NXT talents who’ve taken it on themselves to attack Ryback twice, (Ambrose, Rollin, and Reigns.) They deny any affiliation with C.M. Punk, and claim they were acting against injustice.  They accused WWE of being an elaborate popularity contest, and stated that C.M. Punk had every right to celebrate his One Year anniversary as champion, arguing they would’ve done the same thing if Ryback or Cena had been champion and Punk tried to disrupt them.  They declared themselves The Shield and cut the interview short.  Interesting aspect; as the Shield’s mission statement seems to have themes in common with the IWC’s constant complaints about WWE.

5.)  VICKI, CENA, AJ, AND ZIGGLER – Basically, Cena comes out to address the “kiss” from last week.  Vicki comes out to trash AJ and present Cena with a “gift,” of matching bathrobes and to warn Cena about the inevitable implosion.  She points out AJ’s relationship drama with Punk/Bryan and Kane.  AJ comes out to tell off Vicki and blatantly shoves her attraction to Cena in everyone’s face.  Ziggler comes out to remind everyone that he took out Cena last week in the locker room, and Cena jumped him from behind on Smackdown.  Cena tries to go after him, but Vicki orders him to stop and makes a match between Ziggler and Cena later that night.  The match ends with Cena getting the win. CAN WE END THIS NOW!? I am PRAYING that this is the end of the AJ “scandal,” and I will spend the rest of my life wondering WTF this was supposed to accomplish.

On paper, this was a good RAW, with a lot more actual wrestling and a lot of solid match-ups, however the angle segments really weighted down the show.