WWE Monday Night Raw 10/22/2012 Review

WWE Monday Night Raw 10/22/2012 Review

The previous show is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwe-monday-night-raw-10152012-review.html

#1 Contender to the Tag Titles - The Rhodes Scholars vs Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara
Rey Mysterio was wearing a black and green costume that I haven't seen before. There was a long heat segment here until the faces came back with Mysterio hitting the 619 and dropping the dime. Sandow made the save though and Cody was able to hit the Cross Rhodes for the win.

DB and Kane then appeared on the screen. They asked if the heels would win the titles and then in unison they yelled, Hell No. Kane then did a magic trick of making DB disappear by grabbing him by his bead and putting him behind him.

Kofi Kingston vs Michael McGillicutty
Hey Mike makes the main show! Good for him. Too bad though that he lost in under two minutes. Oh well, baby steps.

John Cena came out. He talked about Ryback being a "change". He said the fate of the WWE changes Sunday. CM Punk then came out. He talked about how his title reign has been change you can count on. He called Cena, "Ryback's cheerleader" and pointed out that Cena can't beat Punk. Cena said he's medically cleared to wrestle and challenge Punk to a fight right now. Punk backed off though to end the egment.

Antonio Cesaro vs Justin Gabriel
This is Antonio Cesaro vs Justin Gabriel III, as they've fought each other twice in the last two weeks. (Last weeks is here -http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwe-monday-night-raw-10152012-review.html ) Cesaro came out to talk smack on the mic and got dived on. Cesaro then gave him a stun gun across the ropes and hit Karelin's Lift. He then double stomped Gabriel and worked a cravate. He then did a one arm powerbomb onto Gabriel into the turnbuckles. Gabriel hit a sweet reversal into a version of the final cut. Gabriel hit Cesaro with a big 450 for the win and upset! Very good match here! Completely different than the previous two and better than the second. Rating:***

Vince arrived in the back with AJ in a limo and they came out to the ring. AJ had a meeting at WWE headquarters. She said she is resigning as the Raw GM. She did a speech talking about her history and thanking the crowd. The crowd really ate it up. She hugged Vince then Paul Heyman came out.

Paul Heyman then came out and threw his name into the hat for the GM position. Vince then announced Vickie Guerrero as the managing supervisor. I'll pass on that one.  Vickie then made champion vs champion tonight with Sheamus vs CM Punk in a lumbejack match. Remember when champion vs champion meant something? Well, if you don't, check out my ongoing Superstars 1990 reviews building up to Wrestlemania 6 - http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwf-superstars-of-wrestling-2241990.html

Vickie told AJ to pack up her barbies and her little dolls and get out. AJ then attacked Vickie and the two had a catfight. AJ ripped off Vickie's shirt, or tried to anyway.

Ryback vs The Miz
Ryback has a new spot where he grabs his downed opponent by the neck and slams them on the mat multiple times. Miz dove at Ryback from the top and got a spinebuster. Ryback then hit a big clothesline and the shellshock for the pin. I feel kind of bad for Miz being destroyed like this but oh well.

Eve was talking on the phone backstage until Kaitlyn interrupted. Kaitlyn showed Eve the picture from the iPad that she took on Smackdown (see here - http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-10192012.html ). Eve and Kaitlyn then went at it in the back with Layla joining in. They fought near a snack table.

Josh Mathews was in the back and showed Sheamus his brawling buddy. Sheamus talked until Big Show interrupted and told him to get serious.

Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler
DB made Dolph tap on Smackdown which lead to this (see it here - http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-10192012.html ). Ziggy took a nasty bump here as he tried to leapfrog and DB dragged him down by his foot. He then went for a surfboard and hooked his hands on Ziggy's face.  DB put Ziggy in a Figure Four which the crowd popped for. DB got tossed out of the ring and was holding his knee when Kane came down. We went to commercial and when we came back DB hit Ziggler with a huge running dropkick to the face. Dolph went for a big Stinger splash and overshot it big time. He hit HARD and went over the top. DB then did a big suicide dive on Ziggy hitting Ziggy's head off the guard rail. DB went for a flying headbutt but Zig got up to him and gave him ax X-Factor. DB hit DZ with a big kick to the face and Kane started to lead the crowd into a YES chant. DB came and argued with him and DZ hit a top rope Zig Zag for the win. This was a heck of a match. Tons of big moves, stiff shots and big big bumps. Man this was great. Rating:****

Team Hell No then argued and Striker announced an announcement from Vickie. Striker called it a theraputic game show called the "Newlytag Game".

The Newlytag Game
Kane said he's a scorpio who enjoys long walks on the beach, rainbows and puppies. DB asked if this was true and Kane said, "Hell No". They argued until Team Rhodes Scholars came out. They refused to compete in this game. Kane said, "Looks like your game show is a bust" and Striker said, "Your winners as a result of a forfeit - Team Hell No". DB then yelled and cheered for winning and Kane stared down Striker until Striker left. Striker said he wished he could wish them luck, but "I don't". Big Show then came out and tossed Matt Striker aside.

Kane vs The Big Show
Big Show knocked out Kane with a knock out punch when the Rhodes Scholars came out to distract Kane. They hit DB with a Cross Rhodes.

John Cena met up with AJ Lee backstage and they mentioned that they had a buisness dinner. Someone took it for more than that which led to AJ resigning.

John Cena confronted Vince backstage asking what the deal was and he explained that since AJ was on probation, it was too much for the board of directors to accept.

Alberto Del Rio vs Zack Ryder
JR asked how much Zack Ryder makes being the internet champion. Del Rio basically worked a head/arm lock and then kicked Zack a few times in the arm before putting him down with the cross armbreaker. He then yelled, "You like that Randy? I'm gonna cut your head off at Hell in a Cell you litle snake." to Ryder. He really torqued the armbreaker while Ricard yelled, "ALBERTO DEL RIOOOO".

Cena met up with Vickie and said that since Cena asked her for a date and went to dinner with her, he costed her the job.

CM Punk was in the back with Paul Heyman. Paul tried to get Punk not to worry about tonight and Sunday because he will win at both.

ProWresBlog Championship match and Champion vs Champion Lumberjack Match - Sheamus vs CM Punk
This is a rematch of their Main Event Match(see here - http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/wwe-main-event-debut-1032012-review.html ).

I wanted to announce that I will be doing a ProWresBlog championship with this match. It will be similar to the virtual football championship that exists. If you don't know much about it, basically a champion is crowned and during every match their title is defended. If they lose a match, the winner of that match becomes the champion and stays champion until beaten. I had been wanting to do this for a while and since I was debating on whether to pick RAW or SD, this does it for me. I will go into more details about the official rules of this in a seperate post.

They built this as the largest lumberjack match in the history of Raw and I really can't say if it is true or not. If anyone feels like going back and counting lumberjacks, bless you. Darren Young was one of the lumberjacks here and he has a new shirt with "D-Young" on it. Sheamus got thrown out to the heels and no one touched him, though they looked like they wanted to.  He then threw Punk out and the lumberjacks threw him back in.

Sheamus later got thrown out and then stomped since he was down. He got thrown out again and stomped again with the face lumberjacks including Brodus Clay coming in for the save. CM Punk teased a top rope elbow but instead jumped back down and hit a small elbow.

Sheamus hit Punk with a white noise and then lined up for the Brogue Kick. Cesaro and Mahal jumped in until Big Show choke slammed Sheamus for the CM Punk win.

Winner and the 1st ProWresBlog champion - CM Punk

After the match Ryback came in and gave Punk a running powerslam. Punk tried to run but the faces threw him back in. Ryback threw Punk on his shoulders and gave him a big powerbomb. Punk tried to crawl into the crowd, which he should know isn't a good idea. Ryback then got him again and gorilla pressed him onto the heels to end the show.  Good ending to the show.


Overall thoughts - There were two good matches and a decent main event that made this show decent. Raw doesn't need to be three hours, but they filled the three hours well and it wasn't a bad show. The Ziggler/Bryan match is must see and Gabriel/Cesaro is also worth a look as well too!