Monday Night Raw – August 29, 2011: It’s Really (Half) Over???

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 29, 2011
Location: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s officially Alberto vs. Cena at the PPV but the bigger story at the moment is the conspiracy that Punk thinks is going on against him. According to him, someone wants Alberto to be champion. This opens a lot of doors because the questions of who sent the text message, was Alberto in on it and who is lying to who and who knows what are all in play. Let’s get to it.

The boss opens the show as is the custom recently. He says that for the forseeable future, Raw and Smackdown will be combined to form Raw Supershows. Did the Brand Split just end? I very well may have misunderstood it but that’s what it sounded like. Anyway HHH now wants to talk about the bad part of the job, which in this case is people lying to him which he thinks Nash has done. He calls Nash to the ring but gets someone else instead.

Here’s Punk who is still getting a decent response. He wants to be told that HHH and Nash have been together all along. Cue Nash to the NWO music. Nash admits that he lied about the car wreck last week. Nash yells about Stephanie. For all the references to her, shouldn’t she be here soon? He asks HHH what kind of man HHH is and HHH says the kind that shouldn’t be lied to by his best friend.

HHH can’t trust him anymore and tells Nash to leave now and not come back. Nash doesn’t leave and says he wasn’t lying about the text. While HHH was gone last week, Nash was signed to a contract by Johnny Ace so he has to be fired to be gone. It’s a guaranteed paycheck too so Nash gets paid even if he’s just sitting at home. HHH says he’s not fired but no more lying.

Punk has a sudden viral stomach attack and begins to dry heave all over the ring as he’s sickened by this. He says he’s just acting, exactly like those two are. Punk references the Clique, which is the sound of remotes changing the channel every time Nash is on screen. Also it’s the sound Nash’s knees make when he walks.

Nash says since he’s under contract now, Hunter should book the match everyone wants to see. Punk says let’s do it at NOC and then makes sure the Board, and by that he means Stephanie, is cool with it. HHH may not wear the pants, but he wears Stephanie’s panties. HHH says the match is on for NOC and they can both suck it.

HHH leaves but with Punk and Nash in the ring…here’s Orton? He doesn’t say anything but it’s Orton vs. Ziggler later. In a nice touch we get a little highlight reel of Ziggler with JR narrating about how good he is. That’s EXACTLY what they need to do to save time and still get these guys some mention.

Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ok so it seems it’s just Smackdown guys being on Raw and not vice versa. Well it’s a step in the right direction at least. Vickie is compared to great managers who had a diverse stable. I’d like to see that come back because it gives people some fallback storylines if they’re bored. Orton keeps up the advantage and Ziggler has a noticeable tan line. Vickie gets involved and Ziggler counters the elevated DDT to send Orton to the floor.

Zig Zag on the floor has Orton in trouble. It gets a close 8 count on the floor but Randy gets back in, allowing Dolph to stomp away as we take a break. We’re back on the floor with Orton being rammed into the steps. Swagger is watching in the back. Something resembling a crossface chickenwing by Ziggler and he keeps Randy down even longer.

Dolph goes up and they slug it out with Orton taking over. Superplex by Orton puts both guys down but randy gets two. Here come the clotheslines and Orton is all fired up. Belly to belly gets two. Ziggler gets a Fameasser out of nowhere for a near fall. What might have been a sleeper attempt is countered into a rollup for two. Ziggler channels his inner Hennig and is catapulted into the corner.

Orton busts out his sweet over the shoulder powerbomb into a neckbreaker for two. He loads up the punt but Ziggler NAILS him with a superkick for a very close two. This is starting to get good. Orton teases throwing Ziggler to the floor but stops him at the apron so he can hit the elevated DDT. That was kind of cool. RKO time but Ziggler counters into the sleeper. Orton escapes and tosses him into the air and Ziggler bounces to his feet and a kind of botched RKO (Ziggler didn’t fall fast enough so it was closer to a Stunner) ends this at 12:30.

Rating: B. Solid stuff here as these two continue to have some pretty decent chemistry together. Orton was on his game tonight and had some nice variations on his usual stuff, making it a far better match than he’s used to having. I really liked that toss being caught into the elevated DDT. Good match here and I was really getting into it near the end.

We get a clip of Cena getting beaten down last week and Josh asks him about it, but Cena just walks away and is all mad.

Here’s Cena (saying that you should come see this on his way through the curtain) to talk about Alberto. Cena says that Alberto talks about having honor as a champion but last week he got jumped by the champ in a dishonorable fashion. He calls out Del Rio but gets Mark Henry instead. Henry talks about how he’s hurt everyone in his sight and now he’s going to make Cena join that list. Oh and he’ll win the title at Night of Champions after he beats whoever wins the cage match.

Cue Christian who says he’ll be facing Henry at Night of Champions. But we’ll deal with that later. Right now he wants to tell Cena that he’s tired of John’s whining. Cena says that hasn’t been whining and makes fun of both of them. If they want some, come get some. Christian says let’s do this but here’s Sheamus for the save.

Cena pulls his fist back to punch Sheamus because he’s not sure if he can trust him. That’s BRILLIANT as Sheamus hasn’t had a big change of heart and it wouldn’t be much of a turn for him to beat up Cena too. Christian bails and Henry, realizing he’s outnumbered, thinks better of it and leaves. He doesn’t come off like a coward, keeping his monster levels high. Nice touch again. Man they’re thinking tonight and it’s improving the show massively.

Johnny Ace says the match should be made and HHH comes in and is like dude, I got this covered and says the match is made.

Punk vs. Miz next. I’m DIGGING this brand split ending thing.

CM Punk vs. The Miz

Punk is in the ring post break which is kind of weird. Miz has a mic. Oh I’m liking this. Miz says that he was dropping pipe bombs way before Punk was and he’s much more must see than Punk. Punk takes over early on with his usual assortment of strikes but the Macho Man elbow is broken up. Miz hits his running boot to the head for two.

He hammers away with left hands so Punk fires off some kicks. Short DDT gets two for Miz. Off to the chinlock before a neckbreaker gets two for Miz. Corner clothesline and a double axe off the top get two. Big boot gets two for Miz. This is a much better performance from Miz than I was expecting. After a few more minutes with almost nothing from Punk, Miz sends him to the floor and we take a break.

Back with Miz holding his third chinlock of the night. Punk starts his comeback as Cole is blasting JR and Lawler for every word he says. Punk hits the top rope elbow and loads up the GTS. And never mind as here’s R-Truth for the DQ at 14:00. Man I wish this could have gotten some more time and a proper ending.

Rating: B-. Not as good as the other match but still it was pretty good all things considered. Miz isn’t the kind of guy you want to have long matches but they’re trying at least. Truth coming in is kind of annoying but that fits the story they’ve got going on. Not bad at all and I liked it for the most part.

Punk beats them down but here’s Nash for the distraction so that Miz can take over. Jackknife leaves Punk laying.

Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger

BIG pop for Cara. No Vickie with Swaggs. The lights start out as normal and then go out a few seconds into it. Cara sends him to the floor and this an Asai Moonsault to take Swagger down. Here comes Vickie as Swagger hits a Vader Bomb and legdrop for a cocky one count. Swagger is in control and here’s Dolph to yell. He goes to the ring and calls Jack a loser. Swagger charges but gets caught by a springboard dornado DDT and the swanton/Lionsault combo for the pin at 2:51. Hunico is WAY more coordinated than Mistico out there.

Tag Titles: Evan Bourne/Kofi Kingston vs. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty

Kofi’s pyro doesn’t go off for some reason. There was a poll online and the new champions are going to be known as Air Boom. I’ve heard worse. McGillicutty takes over to start on Bourne and hammers away. Bourne gets beaten down as we’re waiting on the hot tag to Kofi and it connects before I can finish typing that sentence. Kofi comes in with a huge springboard chop and things speed up. SOS is countered by Michael but Kofi hits a spinning springboard cross body for two as everything breaks down. Big dive takes out Otunga and Trouble in Paradise ends McGillicutty at 2:25. This was fine.

Post match Otunga gets in Lawler’s face and Daivd takes the headset off him. They stare each other down but nothing else happens.

Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella

Oh joy, it’s this match again. Kelly hammers away to start and we cut to Beth and Natalya complaining about someone else that are causing the problems. They should be in the ring, not Kelly. The twins switch places and Nikki gets the pin with an X-Factor at 1:18.

Trailer for HHH’s new movie Inside Out. So how many times are we going to see this over the next few weeks? It’s an action movie about a guy that is trying to reform or is out of prison or something like that. Again though, does anyone care?

Mark Henry/Christian vs. John Cena/Sheamus

Sheamus vs. Henry to start at 11:01. Sheamus pounds him down to a nice reaction but Henry runs him over with a clothesline. The tape on Sheamus’ ribs is taken off and the Great White (yes they’re really calling him that in a feud with a big angry black man) is in trouble. Off to Christian as this is one sided. The not great and not white (I’m just going off what they’re calling his opponent) Henry comes back in and works on the ribs even more.

Christian is back in but he jumps into the Irish Curse and is down. We’re waiting on the hot tag to Cena and are also waiting on Alberto to run in because we haven’t see him all night. Off to Cena who cleans house and the young ones begin to cheer. Christian escapes the AA but can’t get the tornado DDT.

Powerslam puts Christian down but he tries his cross body out of the corner and jumps into the AA which is blocked again. Henry breaks up the STF but misses a charge at Sheamus and they hit the floor. A running shoulder block off the apron takes Henry down and Christian gets a spear for two on Cena for two. Killswitch is countered and Christian is shoved into a Brogue Kick and the AA for the pin at 6:40.

Rating: C. It’s a main event tag and that’s it. There’s nothing too great here but they were trying. It was very reminiscent of a Smackdown main event and that’s fine. With only 7 minutes to work with at the very end of the show there’s only so much that they can do. This wasn’t bad but it worked pretty well.

To end the show, Punk comes in to HHH’s office and the match with Nash is off. Instead, it’s Punk vs. HHH. Oh my.

Overall Rating: B. This was back and forth. The first hour has some HUGE stuff going on including the big white elephant in the room: the brand split being over on Mondays. That breathed a lot of life into this show as you got interactions with guys that haven’t been around each other in awhile. It makes things a lot more fresh and keeps us from having to sit through the same set of matches week in and week out. Definitely a plus there.

The wrestling was great in the first hour with two rather good matches. After that it kept being good but it was a step down. The drama is good stuff right now and the whole show is clicking in a way it hasn’t in a very long time. With the injection of some fresh blood with the Smackdown guys, I’m hyped up for Raw in the future. Good show.

Results

Randy Orton b. Dolph Ziggler – RKO

CM Punk b. The Miz via DQ when R-Truth interfered

Sin Cara b. Jack Swagger – Lionsault

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

Brie Bella b. Kelly Kelly – Pin after a facejam from Nikki Bella

John Cena/Sheamus b. Christian/Mark Henry – AA to Christian