This Week in DVR, Part 1: A Rare RAW Appearance

A Legacy Reunion!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

NOTE Due to time constraints and such, I'm splitting this in half. RAW, Smackdown and Impact will come in this report, and the Internet shows of NWA Hollywood, NXT and Superstars will come tomorrow.

I watched what I missed while on vacation on DVR. Here's what stood out:

Matches

CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston on RAW - I can't be the only one who thinks that Kingston is improving each week, right? Then again, he was in there with one of the three best workers in the WWE, so yeah. Nice little match. I disagree with the booking, but hey, maybe I should resign myself to the fact that the WWE doesn't care about its secondary titles.

Alberto del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio on RAW - This shouldn't be surprising. Mysterio and ADR could probably turn out a watchable match in their sleep at this point. The finish was a bit disappointing, but it had to set up a PPV match between R-Truth and Rey Mysterio without hurting the Golden One, so yeah, it worked.

John Cena vs. Jack Swagger on RAW - Say what you want about SuperCena, and many of you already do ad nauseam, but the guy still knows how to work a great main event match. This was a good example of that fact. Yeah, it might not have fit with Swagger quitting on Cole earlier in the night, but yeah, at least the action was good.

Christian vs. Sheamus on Smackdown - Christian doesn't wrestle bad matches. Ever. So when he's in there with a good worker, one against whom he's worked before? Yeah, it's the kind of mojo that makes a Smackdown curtain jerking match feel like a real, main event battle. I think what stood out for me here were the near falls and kick outs, which came right at the last possible second and gave the match a real big time feel. I also liked Sheamus tossing Christian into the ring while Captain Charisma was on the apron towards the beginning of the match. Good stuff.

Daniel Bryan vs. Chavo Guerrero on Smackdown - Great little designed sprint that put over Chavo's jealousy and bravado. I liked both Bryan's resolve and Chavo's arrogance, especially at the end with the deliberate execution of the Tres Amigos and the frogsplash, coupled with the shock at Bryan kicking out. It did its job.

Shows

Monday Night RAW - Eh, this was an above-average go-home effort for Over the Edge. Nothing really offensive, but at the same time, it didn't wow me either. I'm not a huge fan of contract signings, but the wrestling was decent at least.

Impact - I'm so sick of the worked shoot angles. Seriously, Ric Flair coming out and calling out Bobby Roode because he injured him at Lockdown? Really guys, we're pulling out vague references to real life injuries for shit that happened in a worked match in a worked environment in a heated feud? Oh yeah, and wrestling really matters when Matt Hardy is able to beat the Young Bucks (not using their slave names here out of protest) by himself as a vehicle to get a feud between the X-Division and Eric Bischoff over, a feud that I'll be SHOCKED if it has a meaningful payoff? Yeah guys, wrestling really matters. I'm so over this show. I will say this, the Anderson-as-Sting ruse to close the show was pretty nice.

Smackdown - This was a really good show, a much better build towards the PPV than RAW was. I really liked the interplay between Christian and Randy Orton, even if Orton was a big jerk. /kayfabe The whole main angle, with Mark Henry and Sheamus involved, was very well-done. I have to say, I was a HUGE fan of the PiP promo by Sheamus before his match with Christian. Holy shit, it was random, but it was welcome, and I hope they do more of that on the show.

I also really, really dug the interplay with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. I'm hoping that there's a good story embedded there, because I really think that there's a complete package with Ted Jr. A proper feud between the two former Legacy minions could be really hot, and I think on Smackdown, with the more old-school approach, it could be done well. Hell, I even dug the Khali stuff. I mean, it's not even Khali who makes any segment he's in work, it's that he's such a great blank canvas. They made him interesting as a cog in the Cena/Nexus feud, and I really like how Jinder Mahal is playing off him to make the segment work. Now, of course I don't want to see him wrestle, but hey, if all he does is chop guys in the dome and do the Punjabi Plunge while Mahal does the heavy lifting, I can deal with it.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!