Monday Night Raw – September 19, 2011 – At Least They Don’t Have To Pay The Fines Now

Monday Night Raw
Date: September 19, 2011
Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Well we’re past Night of Champions and it’s time for the huge thirteen days long build for Hell in a Cell. Yes, we have two weeks between PPVs and they have the nerve to wonder why the buyrates are so low. Anyway, HHH is still the boss and Cena is the champion again. We’re hopefully going to get an explanation for some of the things last night even though I don’t get most of the complaints out of it. Let’s get to it.

Oh and Hugh Jackman is guest host.

Cole promises the fallout from last night in tonight’s main event but doesn’t say what it is.

Here’s Punk to open the show and he’s looking a little ginger. This is a bad arena for Punk as he had to forfeit the title back in 08 and Holly clocked him in the head here once and messed up his vision. However, he might have to admit he was wrong about the Conspiracy because maybe it does exist. It’s not the one Awesome Truth is talking about but…and here’s HHH with a rebuttal already.

HHH says they went to war last night but today he’s still the COO. He’s going to do his job first though and make it a triple threat Cell match with Punk vs. Cena vs. Del Rio. Ok that’s the right move to go with. As for the Conspiracy, HHH has no idea what it’s going to take to get it through Punk’s head but if they have to go to war again, let’s do it and there goes the jacket and most of the tie. Punk is cool with that too but says put the tie back on.

Before HHH interrupted him, Punk’s point was going to be that someone is using their animosity between each other to play the both of them. He still says there’s a Conspiracy but it doesn’t involve HHH. It’s someone higher up on the ladder “if you know what I mean.” Punk starts talking about Punk and Miz but here’s Johnny Ace again to say that’s enough.

He says Punk is lying and tells HHH to not believe it. Punk says he’s upset and Ace says that he’s upset too. Ace says that Punk is going too far with this and Ace is tired of the disrespect. He claims to not want to be COO but Punk doesn’t buy it. HHH tells him to chill and Ace fires Punk. That lasts about a second as HHH says no you’re not fired. He’s not sure what’s going on with the Conspiracy but he’s going to get to the bottom of it and tonight, someone is getting fired.

Wade Barrett/Christian/Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga vs. Aim Boom/Sheamus/Justin Gabriel

Kofi and Bourne are in bright green tonight. Gabriel vs. Please Just Call Me Joe Hennig Already starts us off. It’s off to Bourne quickly and the heel team gets a chance to beat him down one by one. All four have gotten a shot at him so far so I won’t bother going into a description of all four of them. Cole says enough is enough for Christian and even apologizes for interrupting JR.

Hot tag brings in Sheamus and he beats up everyone, namely Otunga who takes an Irish Curse for two. Everything breaks down and here’s Kofi with a huge cross body to take out Barrett. JR messes up and says WWF Tag Champions (mini-censoring) as Christian’s spear is broken up by a kick to the head. Brogue Kick and Celtic Cross kill Otunga for the pin at 4:40.

Rating: C+. This was fine and even kind of fun at times. Sheamus still can’t kill Christian and everyone got to look good. Sheamus’ push continues and the whole thing was pretty fun. Also notice the makeup in the match: Ghana, America, Ireland, South Africa vs. England, Canada, America, America. The international stuff is interesting as it’s clear they’re branching out a bit. It worked in the 60s and it worked here.

HHH is interviewing people to try to figure out what’s going on. Alberto comes in and doesn’t like the title match at HIAC. Alberto is a lot taller than I thought he was. He says HHH is awful at his job and he wants Vince to come back and run things. HHH says Alberto will need his prayers for himself in the Cell.

Alberto Del Rio vs. John Morrison

Del Rio goes for the armbreaker immediately but Morrison gets an enziguri to put him down. Del Rio hits what looked like a Stunner but I guess he had the arm. He hits the same move on the ropes that he hurt Rey with…and the armbreaker ends this at 55 seconds? What the heck?

Here’s Hugh Jackman who gets a decent reaction. It’s a good idea to have the host be someone that plays a tough guy most of the time. He seems fired up for this and has a really thick Australian accent. He says if you like WWE you’ll like his new movie Real Steel which is about something like robots fighting. Ok that works. Here are Vickie and Dolph to interrupt though. Cole: “The Cougar vs. The Wolverine!”

Vickie hits on Jackman and Dolph isn’t happy. Vickie says she’s the hottest Diva and Dolph objects again. She introduces Dolph and Dolph confuses him with Christian Bale. Dolph talks about beating humans last night, not robots, “sorry Mason Ryan.” Dolph says that’s a movie and this is as real as it gets.

They stare each other down and talk about underdogs and Jackman says he’ll find an underdog to face Dolph tonight. Dolph says cool but the beating is on Jackman’s hands. The fans start a BIG “we want Ryder” chant. Jackman goes to the floor and grabs a sign saying “Ryder > Wolverine.” Well you can’t say he’s not trying. Hey he stole the sign!

Awesome Truth arrives and Ace meets them, saying HHH wants to see them. They’re very apologetic and say they’re sorry to Truth and will be right there to see The Game. Ace leaves and they stay the same.

Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes

We think this is the original Cara but we’re not sure. This is non-title I think. Before the match starts here’s the other Sin Cara who moves more like the Hunico (false) version. Cody is gone so there’s no match. From what I can find, Mistico (original) is the shorter one. The bigger one jumps the smaller one and it turns into a brawl. The fans really aren’t sure what to make of this. One of them (can’t tell as they’re not together anymore) is sent up the ramp and that’s it. Cody just left when the other Cara came in.

Awesome Truth comes in to see HHH and Miz is all sad. They say there’s still a Conspiracy but they don’t think HHH is part of it. Both apologize individually. Truth must be serious because he apologizes to the Little Jimmies. HHH doesn’t move while this is being said. He looks at them both and says fine and accepts the apology. Since they put their hands on an official, they’re being fined $250,000 each and he expects the checks Monday morning. They start to leave but HHH stops them and says they have a match with Punk and Cena tonight.

Here’s Henry for his first interview as champion. JR is doing the interview and before Henry comes out we’re told that it’s Orton vs. Henry in the Cell for the title. JR congratulates him and says Henry proved his naysayers wrong. Henry says JR was one of them and he’ll deal with the naysayers in a minute. He doesn’t know much about the Cell but he’ll keep the title.

Henry yells at JR, saying JR is going to apologize for all the naysayers and he’ll apologize to the champ. Henry brings up that JR wanted Vince to fire him at one point. He holds up the belt and says that’s all that needs to be said. JR apologizes but Henry grabs him by the throat anyway. He screams Henry is hurting him and Jerry comes in to try to calm Henry down. Henry lets JR go but grabs Jerry, saying he’ll take Ross’ place.

Lawler tries to fight and that doesn’t work at all. Lawler takes the World’s Strongest Slam and Henry kicks him to the floor. He loads up the announce table and Jerry is out for all intents and purposes. There’s a World’s Strongest Slam through the table and Lawler isn’t moving other than writhing in pain. Henry takes his title and leaves as we go to a break.

Post break Lawler is being carried out. Josh Matthews comes out to help on commentary.

Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres vs. Beth Phoenix/Natalya

Kelly gets a bit better reception here than last night. She and Beth start us off. Cole tries to play off last night’s match as a fluke because Beth put too much pressure on herself. Off to Kelly who fires off some kicks but gets taken down to bring in the Canadian. Eve makes Natalya miss a charge and Eve rolls her up for the pin at 1:45. Josh says that Kelly is on a roll.

Jackman picks Ryder because you can’t be much more of an underdog than him. “Woo woo Hugh, you know it!”

Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ryder has Jackman with him and Jackman put on a headband for this. The guy is into this. Ryder gets in a quick shot for two. Big Ryder chant breaks out and Jackman plays cheerleader. Ryder hits the running boot in the corner for two. And yes, the referee is serious about it being two. Dolph takes over with a superkick and a sweet dropkick for two. Ryder gets a knee up in the corner and a double clothesline puts both guys down. Vickie slaps Ryder and is ejected. Jackman uses the distraction to pop Ziggler and the Rough Ryder gives Ryder the pin at 3:08. Cole: “That was a real steal for Ryder.”

Rating: C. Well you can’t say they’re not listening to the fans. Jackman was fine here and looked like he was having a blast. That’s all I can ask for from guest stars and it helps that he’s a tough guy style actor. This was fun and the whole thing worked well enough. Also it might give Ziggler an opponent which he needs pretty badly right now as he’s beaten Riley before and Swagger needs to turn face first.

Swagger, dressed to kill, comes up to Vickie in the back and says he can get Vickie to meet Jackman if she wants and the managerial deal is set. Swagger walks away and sees Ziggler who he smiles at.

Punk is getting ready and Cena is behind him. Cena says they’re a lot alike and the dueling chants begin. He says he respects Punk and talks about the Cell match. Cena says it’ll be history and Punk says it would be history if Cena was the first WWE Champion to be fired.

Video on the Cell and how evil it is.

Awesome Truth vs. John Cena/CM Punk

Awesome Truth does their You Suck song on the way to the ring. Charles Robinson is referee. I haven’t seen him in forever. Cena throws his shirt to a guy holding what appears to be twins in Cena gear. Cool move. Miz shakes the referee’s hand and apologizes for last night. Wait Robinson was the referee last night? Off to Punk who is all smiley. The new Super Best Friends take over and a legdrop gets two. Off to Truth who takes a northern lights suplex for two.

It’s time for a rematch of the main event of Wrestlemania and the dueling chants begin. Miz gets the short DDT for two as we take a break. Back with Miz getting another two off something we don’t see. Off to Truth who puts on a chin/headlock but Cena suplexes his way out of it. Miz peppers Cena with left hands but Cena grabs a gutwrench suplex to escape. Truth breaks up the tag again and Miz holds the tag rope instead of stomping Cena when the ref isn’t looking.

Earlier tonight Cena said he and Punk could be the new Rock and Roll Express so my Ricky Morton reference isn’t as much of a stretch now. Cena finally takes Miz down and there’s the hot tag to Punk. He hits a spinning falcon’s arrow to Truth and the knee/bulldog/clothesline to Miz. He calls for the GTS but Miz elbows out. Awesome Truth almost collides so Punk sends Miz into Truth and the GTS ends this at 13:09.

Rating: C+. Pretty good main event tag match here. The new Super Best Friends thing could be interesting as they’re both very over so maybe it’s going to wind up being a thing like Cena and Orton was. Either way, good match here as both teams were having fun and I don’t think anyone expected the ending to go any other way. This was fine.

Post match HHH comes out and says good match to Punk (nothing to Cena) and fires Miz and Truth!

They go after HHH who has left and we cut to the back to see the roster watching on monitors. HHH comes in and the guys warn him but Awesome Truth jumps him. The roster breaks it up and Regal and Swagger throw them out with HHH saying get them out of my building. HHH storms off into the back to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. I had a great time with tonight’s show and the whole thing worked very well. A lot of stuff happened and a lot of stuff moved forward. The wrestling was ok but this was more of a drama filled show than anything else. It’s a good followup and hopefully will shut people up about how they’re not sure where things are going. Good show.

Results
Air Boom/Justin Gabriel/Sheamus b. Christian/Wade Barrett/David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty – Celtic Cross to Otunga
Alberto Del Rio b. John Morrison – Cross Armbreaker
Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres b. Natalya/Beth Phoenix – Rollup to Natalya
Zack Ryder b. Dolph Ziggler – Rough Ryder
John Cena/CM Punk b. Awesome Truth – GTS to Miz