WWE Raw rant 5/11/2012 - Birmingham

This post is a lot earlier than usual as me and a mate were at the tv taping of the show, live in Birmingham, England! I think we spent most of the show trying to get on camera than we were keeping up with everything going on in the ring!

The night started out with the Superstars taping. The highlight of this for me was the Michael McGillicutty vs Tyson Kidd match. When these two square off it seems like a little nod to Curt Hennig/Bret Hart matches twenty years ago. I only wish that McGillicutty could/would use his real name - the places he'd get if he had that Hennig name!

I've looked into the order of how Raw went down and it's pretty much how I remember it last night. I think I was expecting it to be all over the place but I'm pretty sure it was as it will be shown on tv. The stop/start nature of taping this show made me think they'd tape it in whatever order and stitched it together ready for showing on Sky/tv.

The main issues/storylines presented on Raw were of the Survivor Series lead-up, the ongoing Cena/AJ/Vickie crap and the Brad Maddox explanation.

I was absolutely baffled that they have completely changed the Survivor Series Team Foley vs Team Punk match. Punk and Ryback have now been taken out of the match and have been joined by good ol' John Cena for a triple threat for the WWE Championship. Additionally, Dolph Ziggler has now been named as the captain of the team previously led by Punk - so Foley came back to get back at Punk and now his (if it still is his) team's objective is void?!

Also thrown into the mix is the fact that The Miz has quit the team (later replaced by Wade Barrett). This is surely so he can be entered into the World Title picture seeing as he has been involved with Sheamus the last week or so. I've also read rumours that there's a future face turn on the cards; so maybe there's the possibility of him filling the void left by Ryback on Team Foley?

All of this begs the question 'why change the Survivor Series line-up?'. For me, the Team Foley vs Team Punk made sense. It furthered current feuds and also gave the WWE Title a break from being defended for a month - which isn't a bad thing - why does the title need defending at every ppv? In a traditional Survivor Series match Ryback could beat Punk clean and everyone gets what they need out of the match - Punk still has the title going into the TLC ppv (probably against Cena) and Ryback still looks strong and has the rub from Punk as well as a clean win to his name.

The biggest result of Survivor Series would have been the Cena vs Ziggler match that seemed to be a certainty due to this awful AJ/Vickie allegations storyline. As much as I'd like Ziggler to beat Cena clean to gain some credibility, I think whatever the result it would be a massive step for Ziggler's career. Instead, he's going to have to pull something extra special in the 5 on 5 match he's now part of. They've got no problem elevating Ryback due to his meteoric rise, but Ziggler again has to settle for second best.

From what we could see/hear of the Brad Maddox explanation, he did a pretty good job considering that the 'evil referee ending' was last minute. Maddox' reasoning that he's wanted to be a WWE Superstar all his life and he's tried every avenue to get there but had door after door slammed in his face was a good cover. It's good that WWE has trusted him and given him this tv time and there's potential that he can become a regular as a result of this. Obviously, he's going to get destroyed next week (vs Ryback) but will probably earn a contract due to Punk interfering (leading to a reveal that Maddox/Punk/Heyman were in this together all along - very beneficial for Maddox). I haven't seen anything of Maddox' career so far (possibly from FCW?), but will take a look to see if he's worth the upgrade to Monday nights.

Other Raw/live show notes:

• Rey got an entrance (to get a massive pop from the live crowd) whereas Sin Cara and R Truth had to settle for already being in the ring - Three hours to fill and they still can't give everyone entrances! Rey/Sin Cara's mocking of Prime Time Players was very funny and gave me and my mate the idea to follow suit when the camera panned round to us!

• Very surprised to see Daniel Bryan lose in two minutes to Cody Rhodes. This was followed by Kane squashing Damien Sandow. Pointless couple of matches as neither team takes an advantage going into a future title showdown.

•  Sheamus vs Miz was half decent. The standout moment for me and my mate was when Big Show held the Wold Title up and we tried to get in the camera shot either side of his head (Note: hoping to find footage of this on Youtube!).

•  Nice to see Kofi get a win over Alberto Del Rio. The last few meeting have been squash matches in favour of Del Rio, but this is clearly a sign that they want Kofi to go places (even if it was a roll up after Orton's titantron video distracted Del Rio). Also it would be a slap to the Intercontinental title to have its holder job again. Small note on this match/segment was ADR bumping into Rosa Mendes backstage - hinting at a new manager for him maybe?

•  Santino was absolutely hilarious - I love that guy and would be very disappointed if WWE ever decide to let him go. He and Ryder were in the ring for a while before Primo/Epico came out and he had Ryder in stitches.

•   Nice win for Barrett (over Brodus Clay) on home soil. He got a huge babyface reaction! After Raw ended, he came out and gave an unrehearsed speech that in 9 years as a wrestler he has never been cheered. He was very grateful and surprised (I didn't understand this though as hes English - of course he's going to get that reaction?!). This ending to the show was a nice touch but was ruined by Cena's presence; licking the hometown hero's ass - I'm sure Cena thinks by doing this he'll get cheered more and come across as a top bloke?!