9-3-12 Raw results and thoughts

   Coverage and thoughts on the September 3, 2012 episode of Raw

The show starts with Michael Cole mentioning that just before Raw went on the air Jerry Lawler never came out to do commentary. The show a backstage bit with Punk attacking Lawler. Referees hold Punk as Punk taunts the fallen Lawler. This was good. Punk’s doing a good job in the heel role.

Sheamus comes to the ring. He says that every time he comes to Chicago the party never end. He says that the party will end for Del Rio. That’s because at Night of Champions he will finally…Then CM Punk’s music hits and he comes out. The fans chant CM Punk since this is Punk’s home town. Punk tells Sheamus not to come out and try to talk to his home town. They can’t relate to a guy like Sheamus. They can relate to a guy like Punk. Punk says that what we saw earlier was him attacking Lawler. But the cameras missed Lawler attacking him from behind. He says there’s only 1 king in Chicago. He says that King got what he deserved Chicago style. Punk mentions that Lawler question Punk’s integrity so last week Punk decided to teach King a lesson about respect. He says that class was in session till the white knight John Cena came out. Punk then says he attacked Lawler because Lawler said that Punk turned his back on the fans. Then Punk asks the fans if he turned his back on them. They cheer for Punk. Punk says that Cena helping Lawler means he also agrees with him. That means that Cena disagrees with Punk, which means he is also disrespecting him. Punk says that since Cena has disrespected him ever since Punk’s been champion, then Cena is the guy who has turned his back on the fans. Then Sheamus says Punk wants to come out and say he is the best in the world, Sheamus says he is the World Champion. The fans boo. Sheamus says that Punk cutting him off is just as bad as The Rock cutting Punk off. Sheamus says that Rock had the guts to face Punk in the ring but Punk is standing on the stage. Sheamus tells Punk to come in the ring. Punk says that he already took 1 goon out. Punk says that he has nothing to do with Sheamus. Punk then says that tonight’s not Sheamus night. Punk says Sheamus being World Champion makes him the second best in the world. Sheamus tells Punk to turn around because he is talking out of his “arse” so he might as well be looking at it. Then AJ comes out. She says that tonight there will be 2 main events. Challenger vs. Challenger John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio and Champion vs. Champion, Sheamus vs. CM Punk. Then AJ skips around the ring and back up the ramp. Punk cut a great promo here and of course the fans were behind Punk since they’re in his hometown. I thought Sheamus cut a decent promo too but I could’ve done without the usual “arse” line. AJ coming out was predictable but thankfully short. I also could’ve done without her skipping.

Vickie Guerrero comes out and says she has personal issues with AJ and will talk about them later. Then she brings out Dolph.

Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler. Dolph gets the pin. This was a good match. Orton rolled up Dolph but Dolph reversed it and held the tights for the pin.

Then The Miz comes out to take Lawler’s place on commentary.

Time for the Kane-Daniel Bryan anger management class segments. UGH! The doc asks Daniel to take out his collage first. It’s a sheet of paper that has yes and no on it. He says that he says yes and so do the fans. Then he says no but the fans scream yes. Then he scrams no but the fans scream yes. He says he can’t take it anymore. Kane’s turn. He holds up a blank sheet of paper. The doc asks if that’s how he feels inside. Then Kane says, “You wanna see how I feel inside?” Then he crumples up the paper, throws it in the trash and flames come out. Then Daniel calls Kane the teacher’s pet. This was awful!

Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. Tensai & Cody Rhodes. Rey & Cara win when Cara pins Cody. This was a solid match.

Back to the Kane-Daniel Bryan bits. This time they’re all holing hands in a circle with their arms crossed (expect for Kane & Daniel). The doc says he’s gonna have Kane & Daniel demonstrate. He wants Daniel to fall backwards so Kane can catch him. This is idiotic! Then he tells Kane that he trusts him. Then he fall backwards and Kane catches him. Next he’s gonna have both of them catch “Harold” He falls back and they let him fall. Then Kane & Daniel ask each other if they knew the other wasn’t gonna catch him. Then Daniel says that he is starting to understand Kane. WHAT!? I have no idea what to make of this crap!

World Champion Sheamus vs. WWE Champion CM Punk. Punk comes out in jeans. Then he gets the mic and says there’s a lot that Sheamus doesn’t know about his city. The first being they respect Punk and his decisions. Punk says that a Champion vs. Champion match is WrestleMania main event material. He says they get that Punk is nothing less than a main event wrestler. He then says that he shouldn’t be brought out at 8:00 and say that he is from Chicago. He then says it’s Labor Day and a lot of people have taken off from work. He says he knows they will respect him for doing the same. Then Punk walks up the ramp holding the belt. Sheamus says Punk just disrespected the fans by walking out. Sheamus says they wanna see this match. They show Punk backstage and AJ tells him he can’t leave. He tells her to check his contract. It says that it has personal days and this is 1 of them. Then Matt Striker asks AJ what she’ll do about the match. She asks Striker who he is. Then she tells “whoever you are” to tell Sheamus to remain in the ring. She says that she will find an opponent for Sheamus tonight. Punk’s promo was good here. I have no idea why they had AJ not know who Striker is!

Back to the show and Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez come out. Then out comes Jack Swagger.

Del Rio & Ricardo are at ringside for the next match.

World Champion Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger. Sheamus wins by submission. This was a squash.

Then Del Rio gets in the ring and pounds on Sheamus. Then Sheamus gets the advantage. Then Ricardo comes in. Sheamus takes care of him. Then he gives Del Rio white noise. Then he was going to Brogue Kick him but Ricardo pushed Del Rio out of the way and took the kick. Then a referee and a medic come in the ring and check on the unconscious Ricardo.

Back to the show and they show medics reviving Ricardo during the break.

Layla is on commentary for the next match

Kaitlyn vs. Eve Torres. Eve gets the pin. This was a filler match. Then Eve helps Kaitlyn up and raises her hand.

Then Eve goes over to Layla to shake her hand. Cole & Miz are saying Eve’s being a good sport. Layla tells them to stay out of it. Then Layla finally shakes Eve’s hand.

Jack Swagger is backstage. AJ asks where he’s going. He says he’s taking extended time off. He says that he is better than this. AJ says that everyone (Brock, Jericho & Punk) is leaving her and he can’t too. He says he’s sorry and he leaves. Technically from a storyline standpoint Jericho didn’t leave AJ since she put his contract on the line and he lost the match!

More of Kane & Daniel Bryan. The doc says that he’s proud of them since they’re now graduates of anger management. Daniel says that the doc has taught him a lot. Then Daniel says that he has anger problem and will give Kane a rematch of the SummerSlam match that he beat Kane in. Kane thanks Daniel and says that he looks forward to the rematch someday and will try not to eviscerate him. Then Daniel says that you can’t eviscerate if you tap out. Then Kane says that he can make it so Daniel doesn’t leave the room. Harold tells them to take it easy and they tell him to shut up. Daniel says he won’t be intimidated by him. They argue more, Kane grabs Daniel by the throat. Then the doc flips out and says they haven’t learned anything.

Then Cole gets the mic and says that the fans can tweet if they want Kane & Daniel to either have a match against each other, have a match as a tag team, or hug it out. This is really idiotic! 1 of the options is for them to “Hug it out”? To quote Miz, “Really”? This “having the fans tweet/TOUT” and all this social media is meaningless!

Matt Striker asks Del Rio for an update on Ricardo. Then David Otunga comes out of the dressing room and says that on behalf of his client, there’s no comment at this time.

Ryback vs. Jinder Mahal. Ryback gets the pin. This was a squash.

Matt Striker knocks on AJ’s door. She comes out. He says that things are falling apart and he asks what she plans to do about it. She tells him to tell Cena & Del Rio that their match tonight is a falls count anywhere match.

Daniel Bryan comes out. Then Kane. Michael Cole gets the mic and it is time to find out what the fans voted for them to do. Hug it out wins. FIX! This voting had to be rigged. I’m convinced that all these “fans vote on what happens” are fixed. They stare each other down. The fans chant hug it out. Neither guy can bring themselves to it. Then Daniel extends his arms out but then screams no. Then Daniel does a chest bump. Then Kane chest pumps Daniel. Then Daniel hugs Kane. Then he screams at Kane to hug him. Then the reluctantly hug but apparently it doesn’t count. Then they embrace at the same time. Then they shake hands. Then Kane slaps Daniel on the shoulder. Then Daniel slaps Kane’s shoulder. Then Daniel shoves Kane. Kane shoves Daniel. Then Daniel shoves him and Kane shoves back. Then Daniel smacks Kane. Then Kane misses a clothesline. Then Daniel kicks him. Kane send him off the ropes for a big boot. Then Kane goes to clothes line him. Daniel yanks down the top rope. Kane falls to the floor. Then they go at it. Then Kane gets a chair. He throws Daniel back in the ring and choke slams him. Then Kane picks up the chair and places around Daniel’s head. Then Kane goes to the top rope but referees come out. Then Daniel hits Kane in the head with the chair. This was WAY BEYOND IDIOTIC AND WAY TOO LONG!! There was a referee in the ring telling these 2 the rules of a hug out!? What is with this company!?

Santino Marella vs. U.S. Champion Antonio Cesaro for the Title. Cesaro gets the pin. This was idiotic too. This was all about Santino losing the “cobra” and trying to grab it. Also Cesaro stomped on it. OH NO THE COBRA! Wait Santino got it back, maybe there’s some life left in it! Then Cesaro got the pin. Who cares? Why do they have a guy act like a sock puppet is real? Having Cesaro booked in this really does him a disservice!

Zack Ryder vs. Heath Slater. Ryder gets the pin. This was a decent but short match.

Then Vickie Guerrero comes out. She mentions that she wants to address some personal issues with AJ. She’s not leaving the ring till AJ comes out. Vickie demands a chair. She sits and waits for AJ. Commercial time. Back from break. Vickie says that 2 weeks ago AJ overstepped her boundaries and put Dolph’s MITB contract on the line. “And last week she did this.” They show they AJ-Vickie catfight. Vickie says it’s clear AJ is losing control of her show. Then she says that if AJ won’t come out to chat then she will chat with AJ. Then Vickie starts talking like AJ is there. She says that AJ hasn’t delivered on her promises. Then Vickie says she’s not doing this to herself. Then AJ comes out. AJ says she just spoke to the Board and they told her that her actions have been juvenile and she’s not to put her hands on anyone. They want her to apologize and she does. Vickie asks if AJ is apologizing for being a lousy GM or is she apologizing to Vickie. Then Vickie demands that AJ apologize to her right now. They have a stare down. Then AJ says she is sorry. Vickie called that pathetic. She wants AJ to apologize and make it mean something. AJ apologizes again. Then Vickie slaps AJ and reminds AJ that she can’t touch her. Vickie slaps her again. Then Vickie does the evil laugh into the mic and skips up the ramp. Then AJ flips and bashes the chair against the canvas. Then she throws it out of the ring and loses her mind. This was also a really awful segment! None of this makes sense. AJ booked Jericho-Dolph in a contract vs. contract match 2 weeks ago. Vickie was ok with it then. Plus Dolph won the match anyway! So why should Vickie be pissed about that!? Now they have this stupid angle where Vickie can slap around AJ but AJ can’t put her hands on anybody! That storyline is old. If there’s anyone that needs to apologize, it should be Vince apologizing to the fans for booking and subjecting us to this crap!

They show a TOUT from David Otunga saying that he & Del Rio will take legal actions against Sheamus. He will talk about it more on Smackdown.  

John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio in a falls count anywhere match. Del Rio gets the pin. This was good. Cena dragged the steel steps to the announce table. Then he got Del Rio up on his shoulders and was going for the AA. But Del Rio elbowed out of it and gave Cena a back suplex and both guys go through the announce table. Del Rio got the mic and says Cena’s beneath him and so is the entire WWE roster. Chicago is too. Now he’s gonna break Cena’s arm. Del Rio went for the cross arm breaker but Cena turned it into the STF. Del Rio hit Cena in the head with the mic. Then they brawled by the stage. Cena got a speaker but Del Rio got Cena’s hamstring. They brawled to the back. Cena threw Del Rio into the interview area. Del Rio went for the cross arm breaker but Cena got out of it and gave Del Rio an AA on cases. Then Punk came in and attacked Cena. Then Punk threw Del Rio onto Cena for the pin. Afterwards Punk gave Cena a GTS onto the front of a car. Then he kneels over Cena and says, “Respect.” Punk stands on the car holding up the Title. Then as the car is pulling away we see that the driver is Paul Heyman. He looks at Cena for a bit and then drives off. Cena lies on the floor to end the show. This was a really good match and a good way to end the show. Thankfully they ended the show with something decent.

This week’s show was awful for the most part. The Sheamus-Punk promo at the start was good. Punk was great on the mic as usual. Cena-Del Rio was a good brawl and having Punk attack Cena made sense. Having Heyman there was cool too. I liked that they didn’t have Cena stand tall at the end. The rest of the show had some ups and a lot of downs! Orton-Dolph was good. I’m glad they had Dolph win and not get flattened afterwards! The Kane-Daniel Bryan segments were awful! Their “hug out” segment in the ring was far too long and really idiotic!! Santino-Cesaro was typical not funny WWE comedy. I’m tired of the cobra bit! The AJ-Vickie segment was lousy too. Also having AJ not know who Matt Striker is was stupid! Ryder-Slater was decent but short. Sheamus-Swagger & Ryback-Mahal were both squashes. Rey & Cara vs. Tensai & Cody was decent. Kaitlyn-Eve wasn’t much. They had the number 1 contender for the Divas title lose a match cleanly. Also having Eve offer to shake Layla’s hand and Layla being reluctant about it was dumb too. Layla’s the face & Eve’s the heel, but it looked like the rolls were reversed. Overall, besides of Punk’s promo & Cena-Del Rio I thought this week’s show was really painful to watch!