Monday Night Raw Review - August 13, 2012

Chris Jericho locks The Miz in the Walls of Jericho.

Good match between WWE Champion CM Punk and Big Show to kick off the show. It was refreshing pace to kick off the show with an actual match and not a promo, especially with a main event match such as this one. I'm surprised Punk continues to receives massive pops despite being a tweener, but I welcome the cheers for Punk. It was a basic contest before Daniel Bryan's interruption, which felt a bit random. John Cena saving the day helped hyped the tag team match between all four men later in the night.

Brief match with Ryback squashing JTG. Honestly, I don't see this quick loss as a punishment for JTG, but rather a promotion, since he's hardly even featured on Raw (much less with an entrance) to begin with. Three hour shows are good for getting unrecognizable talent on the show, and this is a prime example. It was nice to see them mention JTG's recent Twitter rant. On a side note, I throughly enjoyed Ryback's new entrance music, as he is slowly getting more and more over with the crowd each week.

Meaningless match between WWE Tag Team Champion R-Truth and Heath Slater. I'm glad Slater was still featured on the show although the Legends story-line is over, but there was no point in him facing Truth. The action was fine for what it was, but no one seemed to care, and I don't blame them. If nothing else, having Prime Time Players brutalize Truth following the contest gave them heat and hyped the tag title match for Sunday.

Fine match between Sin Cara and Tensai. They made it work for the most part and it gave Sin Cara a nice victory. Sure, it made Tensai look bad, but does it really matter at this point? I didn't care for him beating up Sakamoto afterwards even if it did make him look vicious, mostly because it doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. It would've been nice to see Cody Rhodes here, since he looks to be feuding with Cara following their match from last week's SmackDown. Is there a rule against having Cody appear on Raw or something?

Atrocious segment that saw Roddy Piper Pit featuring Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, and The Miz. The one and only thing that made this segment truly terrible was Piper, who definitely seemed off his game here. He can be fantastic at times (especially in his last few appearances), but that wasn't the case on this show. Other than that, the other three played their roles well and had a nice verbal exchange.

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John Cena refuses to shake the hand of WWE Champion CM Punk.

Excellent Triple Threat match with Dolph Ziggler defeating Intercontinental Champion The Miz and Chris Jericho. A singles match between any of these two would be simply fantastic, let alone a tremendous Triple Threat between all three of them. It really heated up down the stretch and finishing sequence was extremely suspenseful. The finish was beautifully done and giving Ziggler the victory was brilliant booking. I would've seen this at SummerSlam instead, but it was a very enjoyable television bout to say the least.

Throwaway Divas tag team match with Divas Champion Layla and Kaitlyn defeating Eve and Beth Phoenix. The action wasn't terrible, but it was exactly what you'd expect it to be. I was glad to see Kaitlyn on Raw, as anything is better than seeing Kelly Kelly for the second straight week. It was also nice to see this contest go a bit longer than normal, which was a plus. Phoenix being the one who got pinned doesn't surprise me whatsoever, which is a true shame.

Entertaining tag team match with WWE Champion CM Punk and John Cena defeating Daniel Bryan and Big Show. The action was pretty good for the most part, but it was the antics from all four Superstars throughout that made this worth watching. At first, I was critical of Show and Bryan teaming given their history earlier this year, but they showed dissension throughout, so I appreciated that aspect. Punk and Cena executing the other's signature maneuvers was humorous and put over their feud going into Sunday. Great final build for Sunday's WWE title match.

Nice match between Christian and Damien Sandow. Although it was brief and certainly could've gone longer, it showed the good chemistry between Christian and Sandow in such little time. They also incorporated Brodus Clay as well, who still wasn't able to cost Sandow the match. Having Sandow defeat a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion does wonders for him, and I'm hoping we see Sandow battle Clay at Sunday's SummerSlam event.

Strong segment to close the show with Brock Lesnar brutally attacking Shawn Michaels. However, the way it went about was awkward and very strange. The contract signing, aside from Paul Heyman's brilliant mic work, was nothing noteworthy, so that should've happened earlier on in the show. The attack itself was poorly done when the camera was "destroyed", but it still made Lesnar look like a badass. The ending assault was an intriguing hook for SummerSlam and certainly has me for excited than ever for this feud.

Overall, a good show that managed to heavily hype the main matches for Sunday's pay-per-view, but the rest of the show feels like an afterthought. With no appearances from Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Randy Orton, Kane, Rey Mysterio or Kofi Kingston on Raw, they weren't able to properly build for any of the undercard SummerSlam bouts. Nonetheless, this Raw has me looking forward to Sunday for sure. The first hour was throwaway, but the rest of the show picked up quickly and had me entertained at some parts.

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