WWE RAW Review 7/11/11 - Kevin Nash Explains

Live from LiverpoolThe Big News: R-Truth assisted a Miz pinfall against John Cena in a Tag Match Main Event also featuring Zack Ryder. Meanwhile Kevin Nash made his feelings clear about Triple H, Punk and Del Rio engaged in a war of words over their Survivor Series Title Match and John Morrison broke his losing streak against Dolph Ziggler! In a nutshell: The horrible show streak is finally broken! John Cena came out to start. He addressed the lively crowd and then put over the Wrestlemania ticket one day record. He said that Rock wasn't here tonight but had accepted his offer to be his tag partner at Survivor Series. He then spoke about how he was annoyed because everyone in the WWE universe were talking about Rock's appearance next week when they should be talking about the importance of tonight with Liverpool hosting Raw for the first time in history. He announced that later on himself and a future hall of famer were going to face Miz and Truth in the main event. This brought out Miz and Truth. Miz did his €œreally€ shtick and then cut a short, rather bumbling promo where he made the point that whilst Cena may have embarrassed the two of them the previous week all he had really accomplished was to up the ante and then reminded Cena that he was the man who had defeated him in the main event at Wrestlemania. Cena of course no sold this with joke face inside the middle of the ring. Miz then went on about how he had rewatched last week's humiliations over and over again and promised that himself and Truth would not be embarrassed like that again. Truth got on the mic and asked Cena if he knew what it felt like to have all the little jimmy's laughing at him. He then tried to assure Cena that at Survivor Series nobody would be laughing and that after tonight Cena wouldn't be laughing either when both himself and his tag partner got themselves got. Here's a question. Did Cena respond to this attack by a.) defending himself b.) confronting the tough nature of his rivals or c.) Making lame comedy at the expense of Truth No prizes for guessing which of those options proved correct as Cena went on something of a comic tirade about the crazy nature of Truth before hyping up his tag partner. Miz cut him off though and botched his mocking of Rock's catchphrase in rather hilarious fashion when he told Cena that €œit doesn't matter who you're teaming up against€, thus inadvertently summing up this entire rivalry thus far. Miz and Truth then cornered Cena and threatened violence before Ryder made the save with Cena in the midst of a beatdown. This enabled a recovered Cena to throw Miz over the top rope whilst Ryder hit the Rough Ryder on Truth. Nice to see Ryder getting a main event rub but this segment did nothing to make Miz and Truth seem in anyway dangerous with Miz not exactly enjoying his finest hour on the mic. Match: John Morrison defeated Dolph Ziggler via pinfall Some mesmerising chain wrestling to start with Dolph reversing a wrist lock into a side Russian and executing a pinfall attempt before Morrison reversed a chinlock into into a snapmare followed by a sideheadlock. Dolph then applied a headscissors and Morrison worked his way out and kipped up to his feet. They then repeated a similar sequence to very little crowd response throughout so either people just generally don't care for the mat wrestling style anymore or they just don't really care for these two individuals. Either way it's not good news. Thankfully the crowd became a little more involved as the match wore on with Dolph delivering a lengthy beat-down to Morrison that focused largely on his injured neck. Morrison kept trying to fight back but each attempt was thwarted by Dolph who then proceeded to work over the neck some more. Finally Morrison managed to duck underneath a Dolph punch and roll him up for a pin leading towards a back and forth finishing sequence filled with a series of false pinfalls with Morrison getting the win after holding the ropes to fend off a Zig Zag attempt before taking his opponent off guard with a sneaky roll up. *** Jerry Lawler on commentary then proceeded to wax lyrical about Dolph perhaps being on the verge of a losing streak of his own. This is your United States champion everybody. Great to see the company still have some remnants of faith in Morrison as a superstar but did he really need to defeat a long standing Champion in order to get himself back on track? Shouldn't that be the culmination of a more clearly thought out storyline in which he develops a winning streak against a string of opponents lower down the card before then turning his focus to Ziggler and the United States Championship along with it. Graphic emerged advertising a Ten Man Tag Match for Survivor Series with Team Orton taking on Team Barrett. Match: Mason Ryan defeated JTG via pinfall Your typical squash match with Ryan dominating before prevailing with a full nelson slam. Perfect booking if anyone actually cared about Ryan as a rising monster face but the truth is they don't. ½ * Backstage the ditzy twins were talking about The Beatles before Ryder emerged. The Bellas said he should watch his back in reference to the beat-down he suffered last week but Ryder assured them that wouldn't happen again before doing a woo woo chant with them both. At the announce desk Michael Cole said that the Michael Cole challenge would have to be postponed for another week because he had heard word that JR had been escorted from the airport on his way to the UK due to excessive BBQ dosage. No doubt Vince McMahon guffawed backstage at that line like a five year old. Match: Alberto Del Rio defeated Kofi Kingston via submission Del Rio landed a hard kick and went for the arm early but Kofi escaped with a kick of his own and then went for an Irish whip but Del Rio held strong on the ropes. Del Rio then tried for a clothesline but Kofi ducked and landed a dropkick to send his opponent to the outside. Kofi then attempted a suicide dive but Del Rio simply moved out of his way causing Kofi to land flat on his face. Del Rio used this opening to send Kofi back inside the ring and work over his arm. Kofi fought out again and landed a flying cross body for a two count but missed a spinning kick which enabled Del Rio to send Kofi into the corner shoulder first before taking him down with a single arm DDT which he then transitioned into an armbar for the submission. ** Very well worked through brief match with Del Rio looking suitably focused and angry following on from the humiliation he suffered the previous week at the hands of Punk. Post-match Del Rio locked in the armbar until Punk's music hit. As a face it would have made far more sense for him to come and make the save but instead he just stood there as we were informed that a pipe bomb could well be on its way after the break. With both men staring face to face inside the ring Del Rio called Punk a coward for the approach he took to getting his title match the previous week. He then informed Punk that Otunga had told him that he had the opportunity to ask for Punk to cancel the match and that if Punk didn't cancel it then he would force him to. This is a weird business. In a separate storyline Cena asks Rock to be his partner at Survivor Series when the two men are already booked to be partners but suddenly Del Rio needs confirmation from a lawyer in order to ask his opponent to cancel their scheduled bout. Punk responded with €œmy bad€ before reminding Del Rio of how he won both his world titles in a similarly knieving manner. He said that he knew Del Rio was something of a slimy, greasy cheapshot artist and so he took the approach to getting the title shot that he knew would work. The two men then went back and forth on an insults tirade with Del Rio insulting Punk and the crowd and Punk calling Del Rio tough but one dimensional with nothing interesting to say. He then said that whilst Del Rio might be a hell of a competitor, he was going to win at Survivor Series and do what the current champ had consistently failed to do and that was to make the WWE Championship interesting again. Del Rio responded by saying that he didn't care what Punk or the people thought, he was the wwe champ and that made him the best in the world. He then asked Punk again whether or not he was going to cancel the match. Punk deliberated on his response for comedic effect before giving his answer with an emphatic €œno€. A frustrated Del Rio then took Punk to the mat and tried to lock in the cross armbreaker. Punk reversed this into an anaconda vice but Rodriguez broke it up enabling Del Rio to scamper, leaving his ring announcer to take another GTS from Punk. The manner in which this match has come about is peculiar and convoluted but I thought both men did well here in showing how much it meant for them to be the champ. Match: Jack Swagger defeated Santino via pinfall Short match. Swagger mostly dominated on offence leading to a finish that saw Santino dodge a whip but then get taken out with a belly to belly supplex and tap to the ankle lock. * Kelly Kelly was out to unveil her Maxim Magazine cover. She cut a little speech about her affection for the business and how she much she had grown in her five years as an employee but was interrupted by both Natalya and Beth who went back and forth with some barbie doll related insults before Beth told Kelly she had come out to to tell everyone that this was all a false expression of what it meant to be a wwe divas which was about more than being €œjust a pretty face and a bucket full of perkiness.€ The Divas of Doom then tried to make Kelly cry but Kelly was saved by the appearance of Eve and Alicia Fox who then unveiled a rather underwhelming cover. John Laurinaitis came out to introduce Kevin Nash. Nash came out to the ring with the NWO music blaring in the background whilst we saw a recap of the damage he inflicted to Hunter two weeks previous. Nash proceeded to cut a good promo talking about how in hindsight he should have buried Hunter as soon as he arrived in the business but Shawn Michaels had convinced him that the kid had something. Nash then said that their friendship grew despite his initial reservations and that he was honoured to be at Hunter's wedding. He then brought up the Royal Rumble this previous year and how he had received the biggest pop when he made a surprise entrance into the match. Afterwards he asked Hunter about putting the band back together but didn't even get a response. He said that he still considered Hunter to be the measuring stick around here and didn't want some pathetic legends contract because he still believed that he was championship material. Finally he spoke about how good it felt to attack Hunter with the sledgehammer whilst his former friend lay vulnerable like a little child. With that he said he had showed everyone how the game was played. Lots of convincing venom and attitude in this promo coated in a storyline that makes a lot of sense when you consider the rise of Hunter and the fall of Nash within the past decade. If they hold this off till TLC then it could be a very rewarding grudge match. Backstage Otunga congratulated John Laurinaitis on signing Nash. Otunga then asked about Brodus Clay and Laurenitis said that he didn't want to waste his appearance in the UK where the people don't matter and so will hold off on it until they return to the US. Punk arrived on the scene and thanked Laurenitis for the opportunity he had given him last week. Otunga then laughed as he said that he couldn't see the WWE Champion being someone who looked like he worked at a gas station. Punk mocked Otunga with a neat gas joke reference in return before taking him down with a fist. Del Rio then arrived to take out Punk from behind whilst Laurentis tried to keep the peace. Nice segment. Tag Match: Miz and R-Truth defeated John Cena and Zack Ryder via pinfall Cena took out Miz and Truth early before Cena listened to the fans chanting for Ryder and tagged in his partner. Truth took Ryder down with a kick and a side headlock but Ryder connected with a shoulder block off the ropes, hit a flapjack and then threw Truth over the tope rope as his opponent took a sick front flip bump to his back. Back from commercial Miz and Ryder tangled in the ring with Ryder getting a two count off a top rope dropkick. Ryder then tagged Cena back in as the two men took Miz to the mat with a double arm drag. Cena then sent Miz to the ropes but Miz kicked him in the chest and trapped him in the corner where Truth got in some damage with Miz distracting the referee. Cena suffered a lengthy beat-down from the heels but managed to move out of the way when Miz threw Truth in his distraction and make the tag to Ryder who proceeded to run wild. Cena then remerged with some glasses as the two men both hit the Broski kick on their rivals in the corner. Ryder's momentum was halted however when he mistimed a dropkick on Truth and landed flat on his back. Miz was then tagged in and grounded Ryder with some hard knees, fists and his corner mid rope clothesline. Truth tagged in and wore down Ryder with a hold before both men rose to their feet and took one another out with a double clothesline. Cena and Miz both made fresh tags with Cena hitting his familiar moves on Miz and then taking out an interfering Truth before calling in Ryder to enact a double five knuckle shuffle. Ryder then sent Truth to the outside but Truth grabbed his feet and sent him to the canvas whilst Cena attempted to FU Miz inside the ring. Miz wormed his way out however and hit Cena hard in the face off the ropes and got the successful pinfall as Truth held his legs from the outside. *** Apparently this uncomplicated finish had to be refilmed twice over which must have been pretty embarrassing for everyone involved but nonetheless this match still came off as an exciting main event with Cena doing a great job of making Ryder seem valuable and Miz and Truth getting some revenge from the previous week. Verdict: Though far from perfect this edition of Raw was so refreshing for finally creating some meaningful drama and allocating reasonable time to various angles. It perhaps comes as no coincidence that the best structured show in a long time happened to fall on a night which didn't attempt to squeeze in the big smackdown storylines alongside the ones on Raw and acts as a warning that maybe the supershow experiment needs to come to a premature end. Aside from two reasonably long and fun tv matches, we also got some good, clearly conveyed mic work from the likes of Punk, Del Rio and Nash and a nice main event boost for Ryder where he didn't even have to take the pinfall against Miz and Truth. On the downside, it's still impossible to take Miz and Truth seriously but the damage there has already been done months in advance and so we just have to hope that next week The Rock's presence will help to elevate the rivalry in the final build before Survivor Series.