I haven’t logged a WWE non-PPV in a while and since I’m more interested in this “special” Raw mostly because I expect there to be a lot of history, I figured I might as well pull out the old timely recap.

It should also only take them about 25 months to get to the 1000th episode.

6:03PM – Bret is back! Wait, I thought the General Manager never wanted Bret on WWE TV again?

6:06PM – Hart says that he and the Undertaker were the only two guys who were on the first Raw and who are still with the company. Kane’s music plays and he walks out. Talk about a bait and switch.

6:09PM – Kane brings up Shawn MIchaels and how Bret must’ve loved watching the Undertaker retire him. Jeez, the writers must hate us tonight. Isn’t is supposed to be a celebration?

6:12PM – Kane attacks Bret, the Hart Dynasty come in, and the Undertaker appears and sends Kane walking away. My iPod Touch notification sounds, I mean, the GM e-mails Michael Cole and says that Bret Hart will face Taker. Sigh.

6:13PM – They only thing I remember about the very first raw is Bobby Heenan trying to get inside the building.

6:18PM – Dream nerd tag match – Kaval and Daniel Bryan vs. Michael McGillicuddy and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz and Alex Riley. Ok, maybe only a dream nerd tag team.

6:22PM – Miz had to skull crush poor Kaval for the finale. Then he had to clip Bryan with his briefcase. I wonder if this was their way of trying to get people to vote for Alex Riley for tomorrow’s NXT season finale?

6:31PM – Melina pinned Layla in a tag match with Melina and Eve vs. LayCool. Eve didn’t even get in the match. Maybe they’re running low on time. LayCool challenged Melina to a title unification match. I’m guessing this is at Night Of Champions. I say they keep the Diva belt over the women’s title. Melina accepted as long as it’s a Lumberjack match. King or Cole made sure to use the term Lumberjills. Melina must’ve messed up.

6:40PM – So far, out of four of the historic packages they’ve shown, two have been from the last two years. What an utter fail. No one wants to see that stuff. We want to see Austin, Rock, Foley, and HBK. Well, it’s better than the HHH hype that I expect to be coming shortly.
Continue Reading »

Based on last night’s Raw TV tapings for next week’s show, the main event for Night Of The Champions is Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho vs. John Cena vs. Edge in a 6-pack challenge.

This is the result of what happens when you have too many PPVs and shoot your wad booking a really strong angle for one of your biggest PPVs of the year. The creativity well has run dry.

But in further looking into it, the main reason why I’d guess that they have the multi-man match (and it’s not like we didn’t just have two four-way matches on a recent PPV) is because WWE has booked themselves into a corner creatively by even having this PPV.

The show is designed to be an all-title match show. Thus, if you only had Randy Orton facing Sheamus, you’d have to find a way to get John Cena onto the show in another title bout. Same with Edge and Chris Jericho, unless you had them challenging for the tag team titles.

Also, with the Night Of Champions theme, how are the Nexus, in the midst of the single most important “angle” in a long time even going to be able to be a focus on the show?

This is another themed WWE PPV show that needs to hit the bricks. Well, maybe after Bragging Rights, which is, um, only two shows after this one. Jeez.

Don Cameron may start writing here at FGB and he sent me some feedback on last night’s SummerSlam, which pretty much mirrors mine. You may be seeing more of Don around here.

Thumbs in the middle, leaning down

Best match — What 95% of everybody else is going to say: Team Raw… er, I mean Team WWE vs. Team Nexus.

Worst match — From what I saw, none really.

I missed the first two matches — Ziggler/Kofi and Melina/Fox, but I was really looking forward to the Ziggler/Kofi match. Yeah, that was me. After showing some fire lately, two things may have happened with Kofi. Either he was going to lose it and start pounding his opponent (face or heel) to the point where the crowd would turn on him, or he would do something extraordinary, like leaping off a balcony or jumbotron in order to exact some kind of revenge for a huge pop. We got neither.

Wrestlemania is there to end feuds. Summerslam is to end the monthly feuds that have started since Wrestlemania, and set up new feuds for Survivor Series, or whatever the next big PPV is going to be.

This show, starting with the recap I read of this match, didn’t do that. They didn’t have a blow-away match, but at least they put the high-flying Kofi in the opener to get the crowd pumped for the rest of the show.

I’m still trying to figure out how Melina got a title shot this quickly… did I miss something?

Big Show vs. MEM… erm, I mean SES, was what it was supposed to be. End a feud and start another. Natch.

The Miz promo spoke for itself. The folks I was watching it with didn’t want him to give a yea or nay to joining Team WWE, but it all worked out in the end. This guy is the best crowd promo since The Rock.
Continue Reading »

This is WWE’s most important PPV since WrestleMania. The Nexus angle has been one of the better things in WWE in a while and it feels kind of edgy. Since when has WWE felt edgy?

Along with Nexus, The Miz is over like hot cakes, Sheamus has done a great job as champion, and even Randy Orton seems like he has a little fire in his belly. Many people can be made tonight. We’ll see what WWE thinks is hot after this show is over. Let’s only hope they can continue to give the newer guys the rub. It’s sorely needed.

1. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Vicki is all dolled up tonight.

Hmmm. The match was ok, with both guys doing their normal spots. Nothing special, but nothing was wrong either. Kofi missed the Trouble In Paradise and Dolph locked in the sleeper hold. Then the Nexus came in and jumped both guys. Dolph was dumped out on the floor and Kofi was jumped Nexus style. Darren Young hit his full nelson-like slam and then Wade Barrett hit his fireman’s carry slam.

Winner: Who knows?

I think it was fine to do it this time, and it did give them heat. But if they do it continuously throughout the show, it could get old quickly.

Jericho and Edge tried to get Miz to join the team. Jericho promised him it’d be bigger than both Avatar and the Titanic.

2. Alicia Fox vs. Melina

They should’ve worked together more before this match. I think they had some good ideas, but the timing was off. There was a delay on the Matrix move that Melina stole from Trish and it stopped the match dead. Then, she hit a one legged drop kick, or maybe it wasn’t supposed to be a one legged drop kick. She beat Fox with a face buster. It wasn’t very competitive.

Winner: Melina

Melina started to cry and Josh Matthews came into the ring to interview her. Michelle McCool and Layla came out to chastise her and she tried to beat them both. Of course, that didn’t work. Alicia tried to get her kicks in on Melina and LayCool beat up Alicia too.

3. The Straight Edge Society vs. The Big Show

Fun match for what it was. They did all the big man and strong man spots. It wasn’t much of a match as it was tornado style, so it was more of a brawl. The best part was early on when Show cleaned house on Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows and then he looked at CM Punk and Punk grabbed the tag rope. Show choke slammed Mercury onto Gallows for the win. Punk ran off.

Winner: The Big Show

Kane and Sheamus had a romantic talk backstage. Not quite Heidenreich and Snitsky, thankfully. They teased something down the line.

The Miz came out and cut a great promo about how all of Team Raw came out and tried to butter him up. His best line was that John Cena told him that he was the only one who could see him. He said he would join Team WWE and he will lead them to victory. It was fantastic stuff. He’s got “it”.

4. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
Continue Reading »

I was surprised to see Shawn Michaels show up on ESPN’s Bill Simmons’ podcast, The BS Report.

Simmons has had Dave Meltzer, Brock Lesnar, and Dana White on the show, and now, the Heartbreak Kid.

You can listen below, or go to The BS Report show page to check it out.

Pretty sad news this morning verified by WWE.com.

From their website today:

World Wrestling Entertainment was informed Friday morning by Lance McNaught’s father that he has passed away of apparent heart failure. WWE extends its deepest condolences to the McNaught family. Mr. McNaught was under contract beginning March 2003, performing under the name “Lance Cade,” and was released October 2008. He returned to FCW, WWE’s developmental territory, in September 2009, and was released in April 2010.