Monday Night Raw Review - September 7, 2009

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bob Barker Hosted The Price Is Raw; MVP def. Chris Jericho

This segment is remembered as one of the best ever featuring a Raw celebrity guest host and rightfully so; Barker and Jericho were hilarious together! To their credit, Santino Marella, Jillian Hall and IRS also played their respective roles well, but it was the brief back-and-forth Jericho had with Barker that stole the segment and the Chicago crowd ate up. Everything about it was perfect. The match that followed between Jericho and MVP was also quite good and helped hype the Unified Tag Team Championship match at Breaking Point that Sunday. It was pretty obvious Jericho wasn't winning when it was said he would win a trip to Hawaii if he beat MVP, but it was a big victory for MVP, nevertheless.

Evan Bourne def. Chavo Guerrero

Similar to Jericho, if Guerrero beat Bourne, he would have won a Corvette. Obviously, he didn't emerge victorious, but this was a nice little match while it lasted. Bourne was spinning his wheels at this point and wasn't involved in a program of any kind, though Guerrero was... with Hornswoggle. Yes, Hornswoggle interfered and distracted Guerrero with a water gun to allow Bourne to defeat him. It was a dumb finish, but at least Bourne won.

John Cena def. Cody Rhodes by Disqualification

Rhodes cut a great promo beforehand addressing Randy Orton laying out his father Dusty Rhodes the week prior, and instead of being angry about it, he confirmed he was staying with The Legacy and basically said his dad deserved it. He tied that into his Submissions Count Anywhere match with D-Generation X that Sunday as well as this match with Cena. It wasn't technically a Submission match, but Rhodes did promise to force Cena to tap out as a preview of Breaking Point. It was a well-wrestled match where Rhodes scored an ample amount of offense, and I appreciated the non-finish to protect both men.

Bob Barker Hosted The Price Is Raw; Big Show def. Santino Marella in a Bodyslam Challenge; Mark Henry def. Show in a Bodyslam Challenge

Barker's Price is Raw segment wasn't as strong as the one he did earlier with Jericho, especially since the crowd wasn't too fond of Jericho's replacement, AJ Pierzynski of the Chicago White Sox, but it was still funny. Marella getting immediately beaten by Show in a Bodyslam Challenge was predictable, but thankfully, it was over quickly. Henry vs. Show wasn't a vast improvement, but if nothing else, it built toward the Unified Tag Team Championship match at Breaking Point and gave the babyface duo of Henry and MVP more momentum.

D-Generation X def. WWE Champion Randy Orton and Chris Masters

DX's opponents were determined via a random generator backstage, and both Orton and Masters made sense. DX had history with Orton, while Masters was merely there to take the pinfall loss. This was a rather formulaic tag team main event with the heels dominating a majority of the matchup, and I can't say Masters made the most of his opportunity to shine while wrestling two top-tier talents, but it did put over DX's submission maneuvers. Afterward, DX brawled with Legacy to the back and Orton viciously attacked Cena in the ring to close out the show.

Overall Show

Barker was all over this show, but instead of feeling overexposed, each of his appearances were entertaining, especially the opening segment and his interaction with Jericho. That alone was priceless (no pun intended). What's impressive is that this was also successful as a go-home show for Breaking Point since Raw's major matches (Cena/Orton, DX/Legacy, and MVP and Henry/Jeri-Show) were hyped up effectively. This was an easy episode to watch and historically significant for the remarkable job Barker did as guest host.