Monday Night Raw – December 20, 2010

Monday Night Raw
Date: December 20, 2010
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, CM Punk, Jerry Lawler

After last nights AWESOME TLC, we begin the Road to the Royal Rumble and ultimately the Road to Wrestlemania with tonights episode of Raw. We have Miz vs. Morrison at the Rumble for the Raw World Title which is amazing when you consider where they were a mere two years ago. But remember, WWE doesnt elevate people right? Lets get to it.

We open with Miz coming to the ring as STILL WWE Champion! Theres no Cole on commentary here. Miz says that you better get used to hearing people saying STILL WWE Champion about him. Miz is ROCKING that suit by the way. Suddenly the lights dim and we get something close to a gong. No way….

Nah its Riley with bandages and chains around him as the Ghost of Christmas Past to show him the error of his ways. The first clip is of him beating Lawler which Miz says was impressive. Gong and lights go down again and Cole is the Ghost of Christmas Present. And he quotesthat although his actions last night were vintage™, he needs to change. Miz says nah because the actions of a champion are defined by one statement: he is STILL WWE Champion. Hes a bit fixated on that no?

Miz gives us a Christmas card picture as he holds up the title and the lights/gong go off again and DEMON CHILD pops up on the screen. Her mouth moves and says Miz needs to change or Morrison will take his title. This is awesome by the way, but Im sure people will b**** and complain because itschildishor something like that. Miz disagrees again and does his catchphrase but is cut off by a very sweaty Morrison.

He says that that was really stupid, even for Miz. Morrison says that hes getting a title shot soon and that hes beaten Miz in the past, he can beat him in the present, and he will beat him in the future. Simple but effective line. Miz says really a lot and Riley jumps Morrison. Cue Sheamus and its on again. Sheamus hits Johns knee in a nice bit of continuity and Morrison is down. Lawler DRILLS Riley who goes down in a heap.

We get an EMail and were going to get Miz vs. his ghosts tonight in a 6 man tag. Riley/Miz/Sheamus vs. Morrison/Lawler/Orton. That should be fine, as long as it doesnt lead to more Orton vs. Sheamus. Miz holds up the title and gets drilled by the emerging Orton.

Clip from the end of the PPV with Barrett beingburied”. Cena addresses the Cenation tonight.

Cole is on commentary now, as is Natalya for the following match.

Melina vs. Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torres

Winner gets Natalya at a later date. Melina has a bit of a haircut. I could look at Eve in those gold shorts all day. Natalya puts her arm around Lawler which is odd. There really isnt a leader in this for the most part but Eve is down for the most part. Melina tries a headsdissors out of the corner but gets caught in a powerbomb by Alicia for two.

Standing moonsault by Eve gets two on Alicia. She tries to go up but Melina charges into her and is acting all aggressive here. Eve and Alicia set for a Doomsday Device on Melina but she rolls through with a victory roll as Eves cross body misses for the pin at 3:15. Pretty slick ending.

Rating: C+. Short match but it was energetic throughout. The powerbomb was very nice and the ending was another thought out one. Theyve been doing better at that recently and its making the shows better. Fun match and it sets up the post match stuff right here, which was needed.

Post match Natalya goes into the ring to congratulate Melina but gets slapped instead. Looks like a heel turn which is probably a good thing.

The Bellas are talking about some guy when Bryan comes up and they walk him to the ring arm in arm in arm.

Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal

The IWC just collectively orgasmed. To the shock of no one we start with a lot of technical based stuff with no one really being able to control. Bryan rapid fire kicks in the corner and backflips off the top. He runs into a running forearm/elbow for two for Regal. Regal gets a side headlock/Cravate on the mat and hammers away for two.

This is a rather physical match with them hammering away with European uppercuts and the boo/yay thing begins. Bryan starts winning it but Regal blocks and we hit the mat. Regal Stretch cant go on though so Regal wants a butterfly suplex instead. That cant connect either and Bryan reverses into the LeBell Lock for the tap out at 4:33.

Rating: B-. I liked this for the style of it as both guys hammered away on each other but neither could pull it off until the very end. Allegedly Regal is considering retirement so going out against your best student (he trained Bryan) is certainly a nice way for him to go out if hes leaving soon. Good match with a very different style than were used to recently.

Post match Regal applauds a bit and Bryan points at him. The Bellas celebrate with Bryan and one kisses him on the cheek. The other spins him around and kisses him on the lips. The other is like oh no you didnt and kisses him even harder. Not bad Bryan.

Back from a break with Morrison getting ready. Orton pops up and says theyre partners tonight and if Miz loses the title to Morrison, Orton will come after the new champion. Orton says dont trust him.

Santino is getting a massage from Tamina who is walking on his back. Maryse comes in and says that now Tamina has a plan B. Maryse gets on his back also and Santino is in pain after Vlad and Ted take the girls away.

Mark Henry and Gail are talking about how nice it is with Nexus gone. Vickie and Dolph come up and she says EXCUSE ME so Henry says maybe he was wrong. Was there a point to this at all?

Santino Marella/Tamina vs. Maryse/Ted DiBiase

Tamina actually looks like a girl here. Its hard to believe but its true. Tamina has to crack Santinos back to get him able to move. Santino and Ted start us off with Santino threatening the Cobra but uses the fake out to flip Ted over in a nice move. Nice dropkick puts him down though and the evildoer takes over. Ted goes for his clothesline move but Santino does the splits to get out of harms way.

He hits his flying salute headbutt and loads up the Cobra but Maryse is tagged in before he can hit it. He cant use it on Maryse though due to the rules but he cant get it to stop going. Maryse turns his hand around, causing the Cobra to hit Santino! Tamina comes in and throws the WORST SUPERKICK EVER which misses by a good six inches to put Maryse down. Superfly splash ends it at 3:00. No rating as it was mainly just the guys fighting but the splash was awesome.

Cena (Eruption for seeing him) is coming to the ring and a guy gives him flowers for some reason. He gives them to a female stagehand and steals he coffee! What a jerk our hero is!

After a break heres Cena who is REALLY happy. He says that for the first time in 6 months theres no Nexus on Raw! He hugs a guy with a WE HATE CENA sign. Cena says he feels like singing and dancing so we get the Dougie and what Im assuming was the opening of the University of Texas theme song.

Cena shows us footage from TLC last night where all the chairs fell on Barrett from three camera angles and once in slow motion. That was still awesome whether you think it was or not. Cena invokes the Shamwow and the Snuggie for no apparent reason. Last night he got to every member of Nexus so now Cena can focus on the more important things, like winning the Rumble. Punk wasnt happy with the chair thing at all.

Instead here are Vickie and Dolph. Vickie keeps trying to say that Cena isnt the only one that won a match last night but she keeps getting booed out of the building. Cena dies laughing and even Vickie starts laughing at it. AWESOME crowd tonight. This goes on for like three minutes until Cena has to tell them to be quiet so they can talk. Even that doesnt work so Vickie just has to talk over them.

What we learn after a LONG time is that Dolph is still champion and we have a clip from Vickie. Its from last week where Vickie made fun of King losing the title and then Lawler making fun of her figure. It turns into Lawler and Cena ripping on Vickie back and forth. Its really stupid but the crowd is cracking me up.

Vickie FREAKS OUT and Dolph yells at Cena and Lawler in her defense. Cena gets on Dolph saying that when they met Dolph was afraid of the dark. Then he saw Vickie undressed and he was afraid of the light. EMail makes the match you would expect it to make, and its happening RIGHT NOW! AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL! Absolutely hilarious segment and one of the funniest things on Raw in as long as I can remember.

John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler

The bell rings as we get back which is a nice touch. Ziggler stomps away as apparently Dolph wants revenge. This should be a pretty good match actually and its a good sign to see Ziggler getting ring time with the big boys instead of fighting Kofi all the time. Cena takes over for a bit but misses a charge and hits the corner rather hard.

Cena gets a suplex/slam to reverse for two. Ziggler hooks a side chinlock while on the mat and the crowd keeps getting louder and louder. Cena picks him up into the FU position but Ziggler counters into an XFactor for two as we take a break. Back with Cena hammering away at Dolph. Side slam marks Cenas 7th move.

They ram heads and both men are down. Dolph gets a Downward Spiral Stunner for two. Nice move. Big dropkick gets two and here comes Cena as he initiates his ending sequence. Five Knuckle Shuffle hits but Ziggler avoids the FU and tries for the sleeper. John blocks and the STF….doesnt end this as Vickie has the referee.

Ziggler gets a Fameasser which is apparently now called the Zig Zag for a long two. There goes the buckle at the hands on the blonde, meaning hell be going into it. Its just a diversion though as Dolph goes for the belt. FU is the counter to end this at 13:15. Nice long match here.

Rating: B-. Nice match here as they got some time here with Ziggler getting a chance to rub elbows with the big boys and gets to look pretty good doing it. Hes one of the best heels on the roster and him getting ring time against a prominent guy is the best thing for him at this point. Nice match here and it got good time.

Post match Punk runs into the ring and drills Cena with a chair. OH HELL YES!!!!!

Back from a break and Josh asks Punk why he did that. Punk says all Cena understands is aggression and he was giving him a taste of his own medicine after what he did to Barrett. Punk drives away.

Jerry is getting ready for the main event and looks pretty good for a guy that is 61. Sheamus comes up and says hes the real king and that tonight Lawler is done. LONG LIVE THE KING.

Vickie is going off on Ziggler. Hes challenging Cena to a rematch tomorrow on Smackdown which Vickie makes a handicap match with her in it also. Oh dear.

The Miz/Alex Riley/Sheamus vs. Randy Orton/Jerry Lawler/John Morrison

Its 10:35 and this is starting already? Rileys briefcase is just a normal one now so maybe people can quit complaining about him holding it a bit. We take a break after Miz and Rileys entrances. Back with some clips of Miz on Jimmy Fallons show with the title. Lawler gets a nice reaction. Orton gets a BIG pop. Hes doing the Austin rope pose now. I guess using a move similar to Austins and being names after a snake werent enough similarities.

Josh Matthews is on commentary for the main event. Riley and Orton start us off. Big pop for Lawler as he comes in and he manages a dropkick. It sucked but he tried at least. Cole complains about Lawler doing too many things on Raw lately. The irony there slays me. Orton comes in to fight Miz and the champion runs to bring in Sheamus which stops Orton in his tracks as we take a break.

Back with Sheamus working on Lawler and getting two off an unseen move. Morrison comes in and SELLS THE KNEE from last night as he reverses an Irish Curse. Flash Kick takes Sheamus down but a quick interference from Riley stops Starship Pain. Sheamus works on the knee as the fans chant for Morrison.

Miz goes to cannonball down onto the knee but Morrison kicks him to the floor. The champion makes the save to stop the tag though and heres Sheamus again. A big kick cant get Morrison out of trouble as Sheamus goes right back to the knee. Half Crab by the pale one until Orton makes the save. Tags in to Orton and Miz and the crowd wakes WAY up.

Powerslam and Angle Slams take down Miz. Elevated DDT has the champion reeling but it only gets two as Sheamus saves. Morrison takes the Irishman to the floor as Orton sets for the RKO. Riley takes it instead as Miz gets a big boot to Orton. Lawler tags himse in and pulls the strap down. Miz goes for the Finale on him but Orton sneaks in with an RKO and Lawler pins Miz at approximately 13:00.

Rating: C. Not bad here with a fun main event to end this. Lawler winning was a nice touch there as its a feel good moment to end the show. I would have gone with Morrison pinning Miz to further the setup for their title match but this works too. It was a decent little main event tag match and we got two thirteen minute matches tonight. Thats a rarity for Raw and it worked rather well.

Post match we get an EMail which is booed out of the building. The GM apparently has authority to make matches on Smackdown now as he makes Miz vs. Orton which is nontitle Id assume. Orton goes for a powerbomb on Riley but Miz saves and runs.

Overall Rating: B. This was an incredibly fun show. We had well over half an hour of wrestling here including two matches going thirteen minutes which was a nice change of pace from the wrestlinglite show from last week. They have six weeks until the Rumble so its more than ok to have a fun show like this one where things werent as serious as they have been recently.

Cena vs. Punk sounds great and there was no Nexus for at least a week so maybe they really are on the verge of death. I liked this show a lot as it offered a little something for everyone. Very good show and Im looking forward to Smackdown tomorrow.

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10 Responses

  1. Sebastian Howard says:

    “And yet the majority of the 411 comments were “It was so stupid and childish and you must be 13 to like this trash! GIVE US MORE REGAL VS. BRYAN!!!””

    smh When I was 13 I thought it was trashed, 411 commentators based.

  2. Sebastian Howard says:

    “Her mouth moves and says Miz needs to change or Morrison will take his title. This is awesome by the way, but I’m sure people will b**** and complain because it’s “childish” or something like that.”

    Dude I thought this was dumb af when I was in freshman year in highschool, jesus christ. And whats wrong with wanting to see more Bryan/Regal than stupid ass opening segments?

  3. Thomas Hall says:

    I’ve been reviewing the Raws from 98 and 01 and so far they’re nothing special. Angle and Austin had a GREAT match on one of them that was about as un-Attitude Era as possible and it’s definitely been the highlight of the stuff I’ve seen so far.

    As for Cena, absolutely. Here’s the thing: half the audience does in fact hate him. How many wrestlers would kill to have half the audience even move when they came out?

  4. WWTNA says:

    Thats the IWC for ya. They bash Cena and WWE being PG but tune in again and again. So what if WWE is PG! I would rather see a good, clean match like Shawn vs Undertaker at WM 25 then to see an attitude era match where you see blood in like 20 seconds! I love the attitude era but some things they did were over the top TBH.

    Cena has gotten hate like no other WWE Superstar but it amazes me how he is able to be him and not let the haters get to him. He really is a good person but the IWC doesn’t care like always.

  5. Thomas Hall says:

    And yet the majority of the 411 comments were “It was so stupid and childish and you must be 13 to like this trash! GIVE US MORE REGAL VS. BRYAN!!!”

    The IWC amazes me.

  6. WWTNA says:

    Raw was no doubt a fun show. It felt like you were really involved in everything. The John Cena/Vickie/Dolf Ziggler segment was some pretty funny stuff. I can’t wait for the John Morrison/Miz storyline to kick in.

  7. Thomas Hall says:

    Well I think it’s a bit early to say in the top moments but it was indeed awesome. I was dying from it so there must be something good to it.

  8. noahconstrictor says:

    Great review. Where would you put the Vickie moment in top RAW moments?

  9. Thomas Hall says:

    I think it’s WAY too early to talk about Mania. There are 6 weeks until the Rumble which is more than enough to set up stuff. Way too early to talk about Mania.

  10. The Doctor says:

    RAW tonight was just like the PPV from last night – fun. These new writers are really doing well. Tonight’s comedy was on point and there were some awesome dramatic moments, along with some good wrestling! The show had it all tonight and I had a blast watching it.

    So, what do you think will come of the Punk/Cena interaction? I’m thinking a Wrestlemania match, possibly with Punk revealed as the Nexus mastermind or some other big deal.

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