WWE Monday Night Raw
Los Angeles, CA
August 16th 2010
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry “The King” Lawler
Report by: David Stephens of Wrestleview.com
Are you ready? Then stop questioning your heart and join me, because it is time for Monday Night RAW!
“That which does not kill us, only makes us stronger”. Those famous lines open up tonight’s RAW as the freshly defeated Nexus stand in the ring with microphone in the hands of Wade Barrett. The fact that they did not win only means that there will be more suffering, destruction, chaos, and misery towards those who get in their way. Last night was only a temporary setback in the eyes of the Nexus. The rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
John Cena’s music hits and he comes out to the entrance. He is impressed by the words of Wade Barret, considering the happenings of last night’s PPV. Cena says that Barrett’s toughness is on the same level as Snooki’s (Jersey Shore reference), considering the fact that he tapped out last night. John paints the picture of Wade as a leader who views his teammates as expendables. Cena says that perhaps Wade shouldn’t have let go of Daniel Bryan, considering the fact that Bryan eliminated near half the Nexus by himself!
Cena says that we have seen the Nexus as a unit, but tonight it is time to view them as individuals. For instance – David Otunga who is simply a male escort for the red carpet. Michael Tarver, the bank robber and stripper. Heath Slater… the girl on the Wendy’s logo? Darren Young the love child of Cena’s mother and buckwheat. Justin Gabriel, who has an “alternative way of thinking” (aka he is gay(Cena’s accusation not mine)). Skip Sheffield, who has nothing going on in his head. The Nexus is nothing. There is no fear left in the locker-room towards the Nexus.
Darren Young tries to interrupt Cena, but John notes that Young didn’t even last a minute in the ring last night, and calls him the weakest link.
*GeneralMail Alert*
Nexus may claim they are stronger than ever, but those words will be put to the test. We will continue Summerslam tonight. Each member of Nexus will compete against a member of Team WWE in a series of matches tonight. Outside interference will be met with severe consequences.
Wade says that the decree is not a punishment, but a way to prove themselves, and examine the makeup of the Nexus. The crowd starts a “you tapped out” chant. Wade says that if there are any weak links, they will be weeded out. Because if anyone loses tonight, they will be exiled from the group! This seems to be really irritating Justin Gabriel. Foreshadowing?
Otunga lets Wade know that the stipulation applies to him as well. Any member of Nexus will gladly take his place at the helm.
*GeneralMail Alert*
Nexus gets to chose which member of Team WWE each will face, except for Wade Barrett. He will face his former mentor Chris Jericho, and that match is up next!
****Commercial****
Chris Jericho v. Wade Barrett
The match starts with both men locking up. Jericho is pushed into the corner but uses his fists to escape. Jericho hits a quick suplex which follows up with a standing dropkick on Wade. Barrett retreats to the apron but gets caught with a springboard heel kick. This knocks Wade to the outside of the ring, and Jericho follows after. He rolls Wade back into the ring, and then follows after. Barrett seems to have collected his bearings because as Jericho heads to the turnbuckle, Barrett connects with a big boot which sends Jericho to the outside.
Back inside the ring, Barrett whips Jericho hard into the corner. Jericho is on the ground and looks to be struggling to get to his feet. Perhaps he was feigning, as he connects with a series of chops on Wade. Barrett knocks him back down and then lays in a back arm stretch. Wade picks Jericho up and once again whips him into the corner. Jericho blocks a splash and instead connects with a missile dropkick. Chris connects with another dropkick, and then a running bulldog on his former mentor. Chris goes for the Walls, but Barrett counters. Wade looks to go for his finisher, but this time it is Jericho who counters, and locks on the Walls of Jericho!
Barrett manages to reach the ropes, and breaks the hold. Chris turns his back for a second, and Wade kicks another Big Boot. Pin attempt, but Jericho kicks out. Chris connects with a beautiful enziguiri and goes for the Code Breaker. Barrett blocks, and hits HIS finisher! It’s all over!
Winner & STILL Leader of the Nexus: Wade Barrett
****Commercial****
Charlie Day, Justin Long & Jason Sudekis are introduced as they are the guest hosts for tonight’s RAW. They put over LA and the Staples Center. They put over the Lakers, and somehow turn it into a Hart Dynasty reference, and introduce the esteemed tag team. I guess that made sense…
*GeneralMail Alert*
From this moment forward, the Unified Tag Team Titles will be known as the WWE Tag Team Championships. Hear to present the new Titles – Bret “Hitman” Hart. Wow, they look awesome!
Wade appears on the Titantron, and announces that Justin Gabriel is the member of the Nexus who will be facing Bret tonight!
****Commercial****
Daniel Bryan v. Michael Tarver
The two square off and Tarver backs Daniel into the corner. Already a “Daniel Bryan” chant breaks out in the arena. Tarver is laying into Bryan’s ribs with a series of strikes. Bryan escapes with kick to Tarver’s gut. Nice snap suplex from Bryan, which sets up a pin attempt. Tarver kicks out.
Bryan backs Tarver into the corner and begins to unload with swift kicks. Daniel heads up the turnbuckle and hits a beautiful missile dropkick. He does a Rock-esque kick up, and the crowd is going crazy. The Miz and his NXT Rookie Alex Riley have made their way to ringside. They distract Bryan long enough for Tarver to score the cheap roll up victory.
Winner & STILL member of Nexus: Michael Tarver
Bryan is furious and flies out of the ring with a suicide dive! He does everything possible to attack Miz, but Riley gets to his feet to help his mentor. Tarver also comes outside the ring, and the numbers game proves too much for the internationally renowned wrestler. Miz hits the Skull Crushing Finale with Bryan’s face hitting the Money in the Bank briefcase hard. The Miz says, “welcome back” and laughs his way to the back.
****Commercial****
Josh Mathews is in the back and asks Miz to explain his actions. He says that from the first day Daniel Bryan appeared in NXT everyone was heckling him. Everyone said that Daniel Bryan should be HIS mentor. Well, those words didn’t sit kindly with the Miz. Then you throw in that he was over looked at Summerslam for the guy, and he isn’t too pleased. Miz uses the rest of the interview to put over his NXT 2 rookie, Alex Riley.
Darren Young is in the Nexus locker room, and says that he wants John Cena tonight! The Nexus all say that they respect him, but that doesn’t mean he’ll still be in the Nexus if he loses!
Justin Gabriel makes his entrance for his match against Bret Hart.
****Commercial****
Justin Gabriel v. Bret “Hitman” Hart
*GeneralMail Alert*
Bret “Hart” will not be competing tonight. The general manager says that he doesn’t like Hart, has never liked Hart, and never once to see him wrestle on RAW again. Instead, Gabriel will face… RANDY ORTON!
Justin Gabriel v. Randy Orton
Gabriel is backed into the corner but dodges a punch. He connects with a kick, and Orton looks pissed. They lock up and Gabriel gets a side headlock. Gabriel bounces off the ropes and rolls over Orton. He hits another kick, but Orton is just staring at him. Gabriel goes off the ropes again, and this time Orton catches his leg. Orton stares him down. Orton hits a kick to the gut, and then a snap scoop slam. Gabriel heads to the apron for cover. Randy doesn’t let up, and instead he hits the suspended DDT!
Orton looks ready to finish things off, but the Celtic Warrior makes his way down to ringside. Orton gets out of the ring and charges after Sheamus. They fight all the way into the crowd. This allows Justin to pick up the victory via Count Out. I guess I was wrong about the foreshadowing.
Winner & STILL member of the Nexus: Justin Gabriel
After the bell rings, Orton heads back into the ring. He hits an RKO on Justin Gabriel for good measure. Randy heads out of the ring, and he picks up a chair from ringside. He lets loose on the WWE Champion. Sheamus is struggling to his feet as Orton starts to head up the ramp. Randy pauses, and then runs back to Sheamus. Orton hits an RKO! Orton laughs as we head to commercial.
****Commercial****
Skip Sheffield & David Otunga v. John Morrison & R-Truth
Morrison & Otunga are the first to start things off. Morrison sends Otunga to the mat and tags in Truth. R leaps in with a big dropkick on the A-list star. David rolls back to his corner and tags in Sheffield. Truth tries a springboard move, but Sheffield catches him in mid air. Skip slams him down to the mat hard. Truth is backed into the corner trying as hard as possible to fight of Sheffield. Skip tags in Otunga.
Truth and Otunga lock up, and this allows Truth some leeway. He trips David up and tags in Morrison. John runs into the ring and knocks Skip off the apron. He goes after Otunga with a nice wheel kick. Skip gets a blind tag on Otunga which allows him to hit a cheap shot on Morrison. Sheffield lines up his target and take aim. A brutal clothesline connects, and this match is over.
Winners & STILL members of Nexus: Skip Sheffield & David Otunga
In the back, we see Melina, Gail Kim & Eve on their way to the ring.
****Commercial****
Melina, Gail Kim & Eve v. Jillian Hall, Alicia Fox & Maryse
I’d like to point at that these Divas are pretty much wearing less clothing then in their “bathing suits” from last Monday. Yeah, I’m still annoyed.
Maryse and Kim start things off. Kim hits a drop toe hold on the French beauty and then slams her head into the mat repeatedly. Kim springs off the second rope with a crossbody and goes for the cover. Maryse kicks out. Kim sets up Maryse in the tree of woe and tags in Melina. Melina hits what looked like an inverted bronco buster of sorts. Maryse regains her composure and tags in Alicia Fox.
Fox tries to hits a bridge pin, but Melina kicks out. Fox kicks the back of Melina’s head, and then wrenches back on the head of Melina. Eve and Jillian are tagged into the ring. Eve hits a dropkick and then a scoop slam on Jillian. She then hits a forward Senton and goes for the pin. Alicia breaks up the cover and all hell breaks loose. When the dust clears it is Jillian and Eve in the ring. Eve plants Hall and goes up for the moonsault. Jillian grabs her and hits a power bomb pin. This match is over.
Winners: Jillian Hall, Alicia Fox & Maryse
In the back, Josh is interviewing Edge. Heath Slater interrupts and tries to construct a deal with Edge. He says that he patterns himself after Edge, so maybe Edge could do him a favor and just not show up. Edge says that maybe he would, but he doesn’t want the records books to reflect him forfeiting to a ginger-haired Edge wannabe. Heath Slater plants a punch straight to Edge’s face which floors the Rated R Superstar.
****Commercial****
Heath Slater v. Edge
Edge goes right after the man who cheap-shotted him only moments ago. Slater can barely breathe as Edge hurls him from corner to corner all whilst applying punch after punch. Edge heads up to the top turnbuckle, but Slater runs up to knock him off. Slater then hits a baseball slide on Edge which knocks him out of the ring. Heath throws Edge side first into the barricade. Slater rolls Edge into the ring, and a “Wendy’s Sucks” chant breaks out. Seriously.
Slater applies a headlock, and Edge tries to get to his feet. Slater doesn’t allow him, and instead connects with several punches and a shoulder block. Pin attempt, but Edge kicks out. Edge hits Slater in the gut, but Slater returns the favor and whips Edge to the corner. Edge blocks a splash and this a neckbreaker. Pin attempt, but Slater kicks out.
Edge bounces off the ropes, but Heath hits him with a flying face buster. Pin attempt, but Edge kicks out. Heath is sent to the corner, and Edge hits a running shoulder. Not quite a spear, but softens up the area. Slater rolls out of the ring, and Edge follows after. The referee begins the count. Edge is on the outside setting up for the spear. Just as Heath gets to his feet, Edge begins to charge. Heath dodges and rolls back into the ring. Edge halts his spear and avoids the ring steps, but it doesn’t matter because the referee gets the ten count in and Heath wins!
Winner & STILL member of the Nexus: Heath Slater
After the match, Edge heads back into the ring and spears the hell out of Heath Slater.
****Commercial****
Justin Long is in the back talking about Great Khali. Long is asking about why he got rid of the Kiss Cam. Khali is in a long distance relationship, which is why we haven’t seen it. Rajin says that Khali would like long distance relationship advice from Long, and hands Justin a picture of Khali’s girlfriend. Well, she isn’t very attractive. Let me put it that way. Long’s costars come in and start making fun of the girl in the picture, not aware of who she is. Once Long tells them, they continue the heckling because Khali can’t speak English. Unfortunately Khali does understand English and scares them off. With just Long and Khali left, he looks at the picture. Khali says, “yeah she is pretty ugly”. Long tries to reassure him, but Khali folds up the picture. Khali calls in the Bella Twins, and off they go for some fun.
****Commercial****
John Cena v. Darren Young
Nexus can’t interfere, but they are looking on for moral support.
Young goes for a quick roll up, but Cena kicks out. Young goes for a backslide roll up, and again Cena kicks out. Cena grabs the arm of Young then locks on a headlock. Cena goes for a cover, but Young kicks out. Young puts on a side headlock, but gets thrown into the ring. Cena leaps over him, and then connects with a shoulder block. Cena again goes for a side headlock. Young escapes and tries for another cover, but Cena kicks out.
Both men are to their feet and Young hits a clothesline. He goes for a cover, but Cena kicks out. Young hits a side slam, and then ANOTHER cover, and again he fails. Another cover, another fail. Cena is sent into the ropes, and gets caught with a boot from Young. Young follows up with a swinging neckbreaker, and then goes for the cover. No luck. Young locks on a headlock as the crowd starts to get into the match.
Cena powers his way out of the hold, and then flings Darren into the corner. Young blocks a splash, and then drops an elbow. Darren goes for the cover, no luck. Young drops a knee, and then a leg. Cover, no luck. Darren grabs Cena and hits a northern lights suplex with a bridge into the pin. Nice move, but the pin doesn’t hold. Darren throws Cena out of the ring, and then follows after. Young grabs Cena’s head and slams it into the steel steps. Young paces around the outside, and then kicks the steel steps into Cena. Young rolls back into the ring, and the referee is counting. Cena flies back into the ring right before ten.
Young goes for a leg drop, but Cena rolls out of the way. Cena starts to brawl his way back into the match and connects with two running shoulder blocks. Cena this his elevated side slam and it’s time for the 5 knuckle shuffle! He connects and lifts up Young for the Attitude Adjustment. Darren counters and tries for a roll up. Cena turns it into the STF, and Young taps out!
Winner: John Cena
After the match, the Nexus surrounds the ring. Cena sheepishly exits the ring. Nexus enters and surrounds Darren Young. He tries to apologize, but it doesn’t’ matter. The Nexus attacks! Sheffield hits his finisher, and then Barret follows up. Young is set up in position and Gabriel heads to the turnbuckle. Justin leaps, and connects! Good-bye Darren Young!
Raw Thoughts
DANIEL BRYAN!!!!
Sorry, I just had to get that out of the way. His reveal surprised me absolutely and completely. I do my absolute best to avoid spoilers for PPVs. This includes avoiding my texts, Facebook, news sites, and emails the day of the show, but it is totally worth it. I’m so excited to have him back. His release really left a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, I get to see him wrestle at the EVOLVE show next month as WWE is letting him fulfill his Indy commitments. Anyone else going? It’s going to rock. Anyway, let’s talk about RAW.
Nice opening segment. I had been wondering how they were going to keep a sense of legitimacy to the group, and the opening pretty much answered that question for me.
Jericho/Wade was very well fought. That is a testament to both guys’ abilities. Just a beautiful ten minute back and forth TV match. Didn’t give away everything in their arsenal, but still put on a great match. That’s how you put out quality TV and still sell PPVs.
It’s about time they replaced the Unified Tag Belts! The new ones look awesome and finally they only need to carry one title belt each. Makes perfect sense to me.
The Bryan/Tarver match was pretty short, but the segment was really all about setting up the Daniel Bryan and The Miz feud. Perhaps a match at Night of the Champions for the two? I’ve seen reports which speculate towards that possibility, and it looks like that’s where we are headed. Should be a pretty awesome (no pun intended) feud and match. Plus, I like the fact that it allows Miz to take advantage of both his US Title and the MitB briefcase. Also, it is worth mentioning that Daniel Bryan is the first NXT 1 competitor to get his own entrance music. Oh, and it was pretty solid music at that.
So the General Manager doesn’t like Bret Hart. Could it be Vince McMahon? HBK? Theories continue to abound.
Not all that shocked by the Hart substitution. I was trying to figure out how they were going to do the match, and this makes the most sense. I’m sure there are those mad that Orton left the ring, but Randy never really cared about the Nexus. The thing that matters to him is the WWE Championship and Sheamus. Completely made sense that he would go after Sheamus.
I’m a bit surprised how much of a squash the Otunga and Sheffield match was tonight. They destroyed Morrison and Truth. It was maybe 4 minutes, and then suddenly over. Just felt kind of odd to me.
Alicia Fox doesn’t have the belt!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! So yeah, I’m happy about that.
Nothing to special in the Divas match. Jillian seemed just as surprised as the audience that she picked up the pin. Only downside is that I was looking forward to the moonsault. Gail Kim continues to outshine her fellow divas in the ring each week. When is she going to get the Title run she deserves?
Heath v. Edge was a pretty decent match. Slater has come a long way since I used to recap him back on NXT. He was very bland at the time, but each week has gotten a bit better. I’m sure some people are annoyed that so many matches ended in count out this week, but really it’s better than the match with Truth and Morrison. Between the extremes I would rather have the count outs. At least then the WWE guys don’t look weak.
I’m a Justin Long fan. Just thought I’d throw that in there. All I really got out of the backstage segment with Khali is that I can’t remember the last time the Bellas WEREN’T used as sluts during the guest host segment. Seriously, is that all they signed contracts to do? I’m actually not complaining, because for some reason it makes me laugh every time.
As I expected, Darren Young was not victorious in his match against Cena. On a side note, Young may have set a record for number of pin attempts a minute. Man, that was just annoying. The match was actually fine, but nothing that stands out.
Nexus taking him out after the match was necessary, and very well done. Plus, I got to see that awesome 450 Splash.
Pretty solid RAW tonight. It was definitely a post-PPV show in many ways, but the ball was set rolling on some feuds. Most notably is that Night of Champions will probably feature Bryan v. Miz, Melina v. Fox, and Orton v. Sheamus. Remember, Orton can have another shot because technically he won the match. RAW kept me hooked tonight, which is always a great sign. Cena v. Wade & co. is definitely not over, so let’s see where creative takes us on this ride.
I do read every single e-mail you guys send, and really appreciate hearing your thoughts. Send me some e-mails, and have a safe week everyone!
So that’s RAW…. Love it? Hate it? Disagree with everything I said? Just want to chat wrestling? I’m always up for reading your thoughts and do my absolute best to reply to every message I get. Send them over to me at david@wrestleview.com. (there were a lot of great ones that I didn’t get a chance to respond to this past week, and I hope to reply to them this week so sorry if you were one of them!)
Visit WrestleView daily for unique columns, recaps, audio and more including my columns That’s a Wrap and WrestleView Road Trip! Also, check out my audio show for the WrestleView Radio Network featuring Anthony Valvo (Mr. V) entitled “The Teacher’s Lounge”. If you’re a VIP member, don’t miss it!
