Chaos ensues during an impromptu brawl at the end of Raw. Decent opening segment featuring Vickie Guerrero, Paul Heyman and The Rock. It established that Rock was banned from the arena following his actions from last week, but that was basically it. I appreciated the effort in forcing Rock to suffer the repercussions in order to make it seem logical, but this wasn't a hot start to the show by any means. Good Beat the Clock Challenge match with Randy Orton defeating United States Champion Antonio Cesaro. It would've made more sense if they rushed the match a bit in order to save time, but I was completely content with dragging it out a few more minutes. The match was well wrestled and made Cesaro look strong in defeat. His out for losing was staring at the clock, so it's nice to see WWE at least make an attempt to protect Cesaro. Brief match with Big Show squashing Zack Ryder. It was effective in reestablishing Show as a ruthless monster and hyping the Last Man Standing stipulation for his World title match on Sunday. Obviously, Brad Maddox's commentary was the highlight of these mere minutes and he's gradually growing on me as well. My only complaint is that it came at the expense of Ryder, but he hasn't meant anything in ages anyway, so that's only a minor gripe of mine. Meaningless match with Ryback defeating Heath Slater. Why even bother hyping that Ryback would in action against Slater? That seemed vastly unnecessary to me. Regardless, I enjoyed Ryback's promo in the sense that it was short, sweet and straight to the point. It was only a matter of time before he announced himself as a participant in Sunday's Royal Rumble match and he's undoubtedly my odds-on favorite to win it all. Great promo from WWE Champion CM Punk. Once again, Punk was brilliant on the mic and did an excellent job of building towards his pending title match with The Rock on Royal Rumble. I'm thankful that Punk took shots at the people rather than at Rock, which allowed him to garner some major heel heat. The Voice of the Voiceless has done a very effective job of making the WWE Championship feel prestigious during his run with the belt and that was no different here. Entertaining Beat the Clock Challenge match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz. The clashing of their similar styles made for some awesome (no pun intended) action and created nice suspense down the stretch. As stated last week, I'm not a huge supporter of Miz utilizing the Figure Four Leglock as a finisher going forward, but I'm fine with it as long as it's beneficial in building his popularity. The finish was well done and gave Ziggler a much-needed victory.
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Dolph Ziggler lands a devastating dropkick on Alberto Del Rio. Nice opening segment featuring World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show and Sheamus. It was simple and effective in setting up the night's main event tag team match without having it being bland and boring. The fiesta spiced things up a bit and was a fun way to kick off the show. Also, the Texas crowd was very response to Del Rio, which was assuring to see. Brief match between United States Champion Antonio Cesaro and Kofi Kingston. These two could've gone much longer than the mere two minutes they were given, but they made the most out of it. As always, Kingston and Cesaro produced a quality contest that was enjoyable while it lasted. The finish was incredibly unique and was excellently executed. Harmless match with The Great Khali defeating Tensai. The match was over within a minute, so there's nothing really to complain about other than the fact that this bout seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. However, I do appreciate the fact that this match was at least fresh in being something we've never seen before (and something we'll hopefully never see again). Fun six-man tag team match with Randy Orton and WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No defeating Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett and Team Rhodes Scholars. Aside from the fact we've seen a handful of multi-man matches on the blue brand in recent months, this bout was very well paced and featured a number of exciting spots. Everyone was able to hit the signature spots and create a fun final few moments of the matchup. I'm fine with Orton's team going over here given the fact he lost cleanly to Barrett on Monday's Raw. By Thomas Brunt While Alberto Del Rio finally achieved his destiny this past Friday night on SmackDown, his current tile reign doesn't look legit. It doesn't look like the Mexican Aristocrat will even hold the title until February's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. This is because of rumored top matches at WrestleMania 29, as the Legend Killer is likely to wrestle the Celtic Warrior at the Granddaddy of them all for the World Heavy weight gold. Let's not forget to factor in the possibilities of a potential Dolph Ziggler cash in, Ziggler has held the brief-case since winning it at July's "Money In the Bank" pay-per-view. Despite these reasons, WWE has said that they decided to give Del Rio the World Heavy weight title because "they want to shoot Del Rio as the new Latin babyface" with that being said, you would think they are being serious about him here. I don't know if I will be able to take a month title reign for Alberto Del Rio to seriously. Thanks, Thomas Student Sports-Writer/Sports Editor for the "Hawk Newspaper" at Birdville High School, as well as the lead NFL columnist to "intheneutralzone".com, and pro-wrestling blogger for "Next Era wrestling.com" Follow his pointless sports-rants on Twitter: @ThomasSportsguy, and read his personal sports blog here: http://sportsguypressblog.wordpress.com/ By Nick Rackley As you may know, it was reported earlier this week that Canadian high-flyer Tyson Kidd suffered a torn ACL, and is expected to be out from anywhere from eight months to one year. As a fan of Tyson Kidd, I personally am upset that something unfortunate like this happened. It felt as though International Airstrike was starting to get more momentum in the brought back form the dead tag-team division. It’s not like they were number one contenders, so this injury isn’t totally devastating to any current storylines. With Kidd out for quite a while, the question has to be asked: What’s next for Justin Gabriel? I can only see a few plausible paths the career of Justin Gabriel could take. The most likely one for the South-African is fading into obscurity. Without Kidd, he has no direction and will fall down to JTG-like status. I personally don’t want this to happen. Gabriel has impressed me since he debuted on NXT. Another option (although a very pessimistic one) would be Gabriel handed his pink slip. I don’t want that to happen, either. But there is a possibility, albeit slim, that it could happen. |
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