August 28, 2012|By Adam Testa
- In what seemed to be the theme of the night, the featured Smackdown tag team match of the night seemed short and relatively uneventful. Sheamus and Randy Orton defeated Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler. The match had some good action, but it didn't seem to ever hit full throttle. With all four of these men having issues with each other, it just seems like there could have been so much more to this match.
- Santino Marella's comedy is much more acceptable in a match with an opponent like Heath Slater than it was when he was defending the United States Championship. I didn't see any problems with the match; it wasn't a five-star classic but it was unoffensive. I continue to dislike the gimmick of the Cobra's fascination with Aksana, but that's another story. Not many complaints here.
- The tag team match pitting two sets of rivals against each other wasn't bad, but it was too short to really mean anything. Brodus Clay pinned Cody Rhodes to pick up the win for him and Sin Cara's team. Damien Sandow, who teamed with Rhodes, was taken out on the outside of the ring. Keeping Sandow protected was definitely the right call. This match could have been better with more time.
- The Daniel Bryan in anger management segments were so cheesy they were actually entertaining. And it all proved more than worth it with the final video, in which Kane succinctly summed up his entire WWE career. This may have been one of the brightest moments of Kane's career and certainly deserves a nomination for promo of the year. I'm not even kidding.
- Bryan and R-Truth had a match that really didn't amount to much. The two didn't do much before spilling to the outside, where this segment became an angle playing off R-Truth's past confusion about Wisconsin cities and Bryan's anger issues. It was funny to see WWE acknowledge R-Truth's flub, but there wasn't much more to this.
- Zack Ryder and David Otunga had a serviceable match. After Ryder picked up the win, Kane hit the ring, teased chokeslamming Ryder, let him go and hit the move on Otunga instead. If this leads to Kane vs. Otunga, can we just pretend it never happened?
- This crowd was pretty awful at times. Fans have clamored for more matches on Raw, yet they chanted "boring" during several matches that were just fine - and the Ryback match. Crowds that are more into themselves than the show are annoying.
Match Rundown
Ryback d. Jack Swagger
Layla d. Natalya
John Cena d. The Miz
Santino Marella d. Heath Slater
Brodus Clay and Sin Cara d. Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow
R-Truth d. Daniel Bryan by countout
Sheamus and Randy Orton d. Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio
Zack Ryder d. David Otunga
CM Punk d. Jerry Lawler in a cage match
My Take
Tonight's episode of Raw seemed remarkably average. Nothing on the show really stood out as being great - with the exception of Kane's brief promo - and everything seemed to be in a holding pattern. Matches weren't really given much of a chance to be something special or to fully develop, and the spark just seemed to be missing. Outside of the Ryback match, nothing was bad on the show, so it's not like this was unbearable to watch; it was just kind of there. Hopefully things begin to pick up with the build to Night of Champions.
Ring Posts’ Adam Testa has teamed up with My 1-2-3 Cents and All American Pro Wrestling to bring you From the Rafters Radio, a weekly pro wrestling talk radio show airing from 8-10 EST every Thursday on Monster Radio 1150 AM in Southern Illinois and streaming worldwide on wggh.net .
