Monday Night Raw – August 15, 2011 – Running on Nash Power

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 15, 2011
Location: San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

 

It’s the night after Summerslam and there are a lot of questions to be answered. Alberto Del Rio is the new WWE Champion after cashing in MITB on CM Punk. However, when Punk pinned Cena to become official champion, Cena’s foot was on the rope. Also, Kevin Nash attacked Punk to cost him the title to Del Rio. Was Del Rio the one that hired Nash? We’ll find that out tonight in theory. Also Del Rio has to defend against Rey Mysterio. Let’s get to it.

 

After a brief recap of last night Nickelback opens us up.

 

Here’s HHH to open the show. He says he made a mistake last night and he’ll tell that to Cena’s face later. If he hadn’t screwed up he’s not sure who would have won but he would have had no problem raising the hand of CM Punk. HHH assures us he had nothing to do with it though. He’s friends with Nash and all he did was leave Nash some tickets to the show. There’s an invitation for Nash to be here tonight. As for Del Rio, that’s just how Money in the Bank works. There’s only one WWE Champion, and here he is.

 

Cue Alberto who talks about how awesome he is and he talks about destiny. He says he’s going to be a great champion and he’ll be in the lobby all night signing autographs and taking pictures. That’s the kind of champion he’ll be: a champion of the people. For his first title defense he’s going to beat Rey. That took him a few minutes to say for some reason. The people need to change their area code because after tonight he’ll be their new hero. This was oddly not full blown heel.

 

HHH goes into Cena’s dressing room.

 

John Morrison vs. R-Truth

 

This is falls count anywhere. Morrison says he’s going to give the Little Jimmys something to cheer about. Also Truth has what sounds like a rock/instrumental version of his old theme song. Morrison takes over to start and we go to the floor quickly. Big corkscrew dive takes Truth down for two. Moonlight Drive (I know that’s probably not the name of it but who cares) off the railing gets the same.

 

Truth fights back and hits a sitout gordbuster for two as we take a break. Back with Truth getting two on the floor off a move we don’t see. A replay shows that he dumped Morrison off the top while Morrison was punching him. Total dominance by the Jimmy Hater extraordinaire. We go into the crowd and Truth sends Morrison sprawling onto the concrete for two.

 

Coming back to ringside though Morrison gets a big kick to the head which was nearly a Pele and nearly gets the three. Truth rams him into the steps to take momentum right back. He grabs a rolling chair but a clothesline stops it. Morrison suplexes Truth onto the chair and hits a running knee to the head for the pin at approximately 11:00. The ending was kind of sudden.

 

Rating: B-. Well Morrison is certainly better in gimmick matches. This is what he was made for: wild brawls that he can hit his offense out of nowhere in. That’s what the whole Parkour stuff fits in with so it makes perfect sense. Also good to see him get a win because he hasn’t done much of note since coming back.

 

Punk is here.

 

Here’s Miz who is rocking a suit. He wants to talk to someone famous tonight: it’s Jared from Subway. Jared is sitting in the front row with a sandwich in his hand. Miz says he should be the pitchman for Subway and steals the sandwich. He gives a well scripted commercial for it and then tells the Subway executives to thank him for putting the chicken sandwich or whatever on Twitter as a trending topic. He’ll be a champion again, catchphrase and he’s out.

 

Nash is here.

 

Trace Adkins is here.

 

Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres vs. Bella Twins

 

Kelly takes let’s say Brie down and does the stupid Stink Face. Kelly gets double teamed and beaten down for awhile. Brie does something painful looking as she bends Kelly’s leg all the way to the point where her boot is touching her own face. Something resembling a flapjack allows the tag to Eve. She cleans house and the moonsault ends this at about 3:00. Not much at all here.

 

Rating: C. Not a horrible match at all here and the potential Eve heel turn seems like a distinct possibility. This was fine as the match wasn’t great or anything but they’re getting better. There’s some thought to the matches now rather than go out, do signature moves, Kelly wins. That’s a step in the right direction.

 

Post match here are Beth (rocking a black dress) and Natalya. They stare the good girls down and that’s about it.

 

Here’s Kevin Nash after a list of his accomplishments. No music though. The hair and beard are both dark. He thanks HHH for letting him come here and explain his actions. He talks about being friends with HHH for years and mentions that HHH is the godfather of Nash’s son. Nash talks about how HHH left him some tickets as a favor. Just before the main event last night, there was a text from a friend (doesn’t say any names) asking Nash to take out whoever wins the title. Nash did it as a favor and says to Punk that it was just business. He implies that HHH knew about it but doesn’t say it was HHH that send the text.

 

Nash goes to leave and here’s Punk. Punk talks about how HHH and Nash were clearly in on this together because HHH keeps talking about what is good for business. Punk asks Nash if he’d jump off a bridge if it was good for business, because Punk thinks it would be good for business. He says Nash being there is HHH’s version of “good for business”. Nash says they’ve never talked before but Punk needs to watch his mouth. Punk says this is his world and Nash says your world just changed.

 

Punk says maybe HHH is telling the truth and maybe Nash is the liar. Nash offers to show the text from his phone. Punk offers a text from his sister, saying that she thought Nash was dead. Punk says it’s just Nash’s career that is dead. He says he’s mad at a lot of people but Del Rio isn’t one of them because that’s something he’s done. One person he is mad about is HHH for bringing his cronies back. Nash says HHH shook things up around here. Punk says he did that and Nash calls him an indy-rific wannabe.

 

Nash talks about Punk loses the title so fast he doesn’t have time to keep it. Punk says it’s 2011, not 1994. Nash says if you want to go back to the past, let’s go back to 1996 and what he and Hall did (no Hogan or NWO reference) and how it made everyone a bunch of money. Can’t argue there. Nash says go hit the weights and take a shower because you look like a short order cook from a Pikeville (KENTUCKY) Waffle House. Punk: “I like Waffle House.”

 

CM makes fun of the past gimmicks of Nash, such as Oz and Vinnie Vegas. Punk says that’s enough talk so let’s fight right here in San Diego. He goes to the ring but security steps in to stop him. Punk says that’s because of HHH so he’ll go talk to the COO himself because Nash is in the ring and can’t watch HHH’s back at the moment. Punk won this one as Nash was looking for answers at times near the end.

 

We get more highlights of Rey’s world title wins as they’re trying to play up this as a huge moment for him.

 

Nash goes into HHH’s office but he’s not there. Johnny Ace is there and is as slimy as ever. He wants to talk to Nash about something in private. Nash shakes his head but goes with him.

 

We get a recap of Ziggler and Vickie arguing last week.

 

Alex Riley vs. Jack Swagger

 

When we come back from the recap Dolph and Vickie are on commentary and arguing. Basic stuff to start as the couple argues at ringside. Vader Bomb hits and Swagger puts on a double chickenwing. They argue about Vickie’s bad breath which results in Vickie complaining about not getting enough kisses. Key lock goes on and Dolph says Vickie knows her role. Even Cole is laughing at Jerry’s jokes here.

 

Spinebuster puts Swagger down as JR desperately tries to talk about the match. Vickie gets up and steals JR’s hat for no apparent reason. Riley gets in a kick to the head as Vickie….puts the hat on the referee. Riley is distracted and it lets Swagger botch the gutwrench bomb twice before the third attempts ends this at 4:24.

 

Rating: C. We’ll call this average because the point of this was the Dolph/Vickie stuff. The ending makes a bit more sense now as it was about getting Riley distracted to let Swagger get the win. I’m curious to see where this is going but hopefully it leads to Vickie leaving Dolph or vice versa because he doesn’t need her at all.

 

Post match Dolph stomps on the hat.

 

After a break Swagger comes up to Vickie and suggests she expands the people she manages, implying he wants her to manage him.

 

Same video package from last night about WWE being in LA.

 

Punk goes into HHH’s locker room and finds Stephanie. She says he didn’t actually win last night which is true. She says people always get what they deserve and leaves with a kind of evil look on her face.

 

Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne vs. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty

 

The champs have new music and McGillicutty is in a skull cap. Shawn Michaels tweeted about Nash and it’s kind of implied he might be back. Kofi vs. Michael starts us off. That doesn’t go anywhere so it’s off to Bourne who gets beaten down. Make that gets beaten down for a very long time. I’m kind of stunned by the fact that the tag champions have held the titles for the longest stretch in over a year.

 

We talk about Hillbilly Jim for no apparent reason and it’s hot tag to Kofi. He beats up his former NXT Rookie but stumbles on the top rope cross body. He manages to shift it into a clothesline though so it’s nowhere near as bad as it could have been. McGillicutty gets a dropkick to Kingston’s back but is knocked into position for the Shooting Star Press which ends this at 4:40.

 

Rating: C-. A little boring but the Shooting Star is always worth seeing. Also it’s nice to see the champions actually having a challenge for a change. I’d go with the Usos because there’s an actual feud there but whatever. Nothing great here but it adds a little story to the division which is all you can ask for anymore.

 

Raw World Title: Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio

 

The new champ rolls out in a bright red Ferrari. Rey is the hometown boy so he gets a huge pop. It seems to be the Undisputed WWE Championship now. We continue the old school weapon checks but don’t even get big match intros. Fast paced stuff to start but it’s pretty basic. Rey sends him to the floor as we take a break. The bell rang at 10 until 11pm so they don’t have a ton of time.

 

Back with Rey in a body vice and he pulls half of the mask off. Alberto takes him up to the top which doesn’t work at all as Rey takes him down with a tornado DDT. Wicked one too. Spinning cross body gets two. Rolling sunset flip gets two. Rey gets taken down for a bit but takes to the air, sending Alberto to the floor. Gorgeous Asai Moonsault takes both guys down.

 

Seated Senton hits and he gets Alberto into the 619 position. Alberto takes his head off with a clothesline though and complains when it only gets two. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets the same result. Corner enziguri gets two. Rey grabs a rollup out of nowhere for two to break up the armbreaker.

 

Dropkick puts Rey down and he goes for the arm again. Rey reverses into an electric chair position and into a rana for the 619 position. The call connects (hate that term but whatever) and it’s top rope splash time. Jerry declares it over which seals Rey’s fate. The splash hits knees and Alberto gets a small package for the pin at 12:50.

 

Rating: C+. Pretty good match here and Alberto wins clean which is something that he certainly needs. These two have chemistry and this was no exception to it, which is probably due to them having so many matches together over the past year. Good stuff here and it worked rather well for a TV main event.

 

Post match Alberto goes for the arm and snaps it on the rope then puts the armbreaker on. Cena runs out for the save and wants a mic.  He rants about how much his weekend sucked and is all kinds of serious.  he says Alberto cashed in a briefcase and got lucky.  One days he’s going to have to defend it (kind of like he just did?) and if it’s against Cena, he won’t be so lucky.  Serious Cena works very well and this was one of those moments.

 

Overall Rating: A-. This show was about drama and it certainly worked I think. We still have a lot of questions and it’s interesting TV. The lack of wrestling hurt it but at times you need to have some drama out there and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. This was a good show and it built up very well towards the big main event and the drama helped that a lot. Good show overall and I want to see next week’s show now.

 

Results

John Morrison b. R-Truth – Running knee to the head

Eve Torres/Kelly Kelly b. Brie Bella – Moonsault

Jack Swagger b. Alex Riley – Gutwrench powerbomb

Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne b. Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga – Shooting Star Press to McGillicutty

Alberto Del Rio b. Rey Mysterio – Small Package