Daniel Bryan attacks Kane with a vicious chair shot. Effective opening segment featuring John Laurinaitis and WWE Champion CM Punk. It was a pleasant surprise in seeing Punk make an appearance on SmackDown, and he led Laurinatis to a good promo that helped hype a match with Kane later in the night. Once Punk walked off, Laurinaitis garnered major heat by badgering the audience and playing his role extremely well. Fun match with WWE Tag Team Champions R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeating Titus O'Neil and Darren Young. I would have liked to see O'Neil and Young continue their recent momentum with a victory here, but the tag team champs needed a win going into their title defense at Over the Limit. Hopefully, we see more from these two teams in the near future. Intense segment with Damien Sandow refusing to face Yoshi Tatsu, only to viciously attack him moments later after Tatsu called him out on it. Sandow's gimmick has me intrigued, and it certainly seems to accumulating heat fairly quickly. Although I would have loved to see him compete, forcefully beating down Tatsu was an awesome way in foreshadowing his aggressive characteristics in the ring. Brief match with Daniel Bryan quickly defeating Zack Ryder. Based upon past matches between the two, I would have loved to see this go longer, but keeping it short made Bryan look strong into his WWE Championship on Sunday. Ryder hasn't meant anything in ages, so having him to job out to Bryan in this fashion didn't do much damage that wasn't already done.
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WWE COO Triple H gets physical with Paul Heyman. Strong promo to kick off the show featuring Triple H and Paul Heyman. I believe they could held off another week with Triple H's return until after Over the Limit, but it was one of the few highlights of this show. Both HHH and Heyman played their roles extremely role, and this segment has me intrigued regarding the Brock Lesnar angle going forward. Good tag team match with WWE Champion CM Punk and United States Champion Santino Marella defeating Daniel Bryan and Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes. Punk had great chemistry with Rhodes throughout, and it was smart to have Punk and Bryan keep their distance going into Sunday. Santino felt like the odd man in this bout, whose comedic antics didn't do anything to enhance the action in this action. Santino's newfound feud with Rhodes feels a bit random, but at least it brought more star power to this match. Quick Divas match that saw Beth Phoenix squash Alicia Fox. Like most Divas matches, the action was kept under a minute, so it didn't mean much other than getting Phoenix over as a threat to the title. However, that momentum was quickly diminished when Layla rushed the ring and get the better of the Glamazon. Throwaway match between Big Show and Kane that served no purpose. Sure, Kane got the victory, but it meant nothing since it was due to a distraction from John Laurinaitis. The firing of Big Show showed nice emotion from Show, even if it was a bit over the top. The feud between Lauinaitis and Show seemed odd at first, but it's successful in the sense that it's getting heat on Johnny Ace. However, Show's "firing" was quickly forgotten by the end of the show since they only lasted about a week or two these days. Paul Heyman returns to WWE on Brock Lesnar's behalf. Decent promo from Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis and WWE Champion CM Punk to kick off the show. I'm not sure having Laurinaitis be the first thing viewers see when they turn into Raw is the smartest idea, but luckily, Punk was quick to interrupt and take shots at this long-time rival. An effective way in setting up the evening's main event as well. Quick Intercontinental Championship rematch between Cody Rhodes and Big Show. We've already seen this twice before, so it was nothing new and was too brief to really mean anything. If nothing else, I'm glad they used logic and gave Show his rightful rematch clause, but I hope this is the end of the line for this feud. I'm not sure what the point was of the promo between Show and Eve, since the World's Largest Athlete didn't have any past issues with Eve or Lauinaitis before tonight. If it was intended to get heat on Eve, it worked. Fun match with Dolph Ziggler defeating WWE Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston. This bout felt a bit random since the rivalry has yet to be established, but it was a good win for Ziggler nonetheless. Abraham Washington's All World stable backstage took away from this match only slightly, but at least it's giving the direction some much-needed direction. Effective promo from John Cena discussing last week's incident and intentions for Over the Limit. What he stated was pretty much what you'd expect from him, but he never fails to deliver it in such an intense fashion. He was also successful in building his feud with Laurinaitis and giving us fans an incentive to be invented in it. Fine Divas tag team match with Divas Champion Layla and Kelly Kelly defeating Natalya and Maxine. Since Layla has returned, it seems the quality of the matches she's participated in have improved. She may not be the division's best worker, but it beats seeing Kelly Kelly with the strap. Maxine looked very impressive in her first televised appearance and here's hoping this is only beginning of her tenure on the main shows. Daniel Bryan delivers a forceful dropkick to Sheamus. Strong segment featuring Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, and Alberto Del Rio to kick off the show. All men played their roles very well and furthered the feud nicely between all three of them. I was baffled as to why we'd be receiving the World Heavyweight title match at the start of the program, but luckily it ended quickly via disqualification to set up the rematch later in the show. Fun match with WWE Tag Team Champions R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeating Hunico and Camacho. It gave a good victory to Truth and Kignston to establish them as legitimate champs, while Hunico and Camacho had an impressive showing. I liked Abraham Washington hanging out with Primo, Epico, and Rosa on the stage, so hopefully the angle leads somewhere. Typical match with Brodus Clay defeating Jack Swagger via count-out. The action was fine, but it was obviously too quick to mean anything. It benefits Brodus in the sense he's defeating former World Heavyweight Champions, but it's become too predictable at this point that it doesn't do much. Great promo from Damien Sandow here. They built him up perfectly with the vignettes that have been airing in recent weeks, and he certainly delivered. As much as I would like to see him compete, it was smart to hold it off so it garners him more heat. I enjoyed the mini promo Derrick Bateman cut, mostly due to the fact that he mentioned his NXT match from a few months ago and actually applied to WWE logic. Ryback accepting the challenge was a pleasant surprise and gave him a victory that wasn't against a local athlete. |
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