Monday Night Raw – October 17, 2011 – A Bad Show In All Languages

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 17, 2011
Location: Mexico Sports Palace, Mexico City, Mexico
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s the rare taped Raw tonight as this happened on Saturday night in Mexico City. This is a new place for the company and the crowd should be very hot. After about 5 angles were blown off last week, we’re at the go home show for Vengeance which has about 2 matches at the moment. To be fair though you can see a lot of them that just haven’t been announced yet. Let’s get to it.

I got home late tonight so I’m trying to catch up as fast as I can.

After the theme song here’s Johnny Ace to no music. As he comes to the ring we get a quick video from last week with HHH being fired and Vince naming Ace the new GM. He teases Rey returning but he’s in San Diego for rehab and isn’t here tonight. Ace talks about how the Board of Directors have confidence in him and how he was criticized for firing JR on Twitter. With that, he brings out JR.

JR goes to commentary but Ace calls him into the ring. He apologizes to JR and makes fun of his speech impediments. We get a clip from last week which aired during a commercial where Cole led the goodbye song for JR and was booed out of the building. Back live Ace says he wants to settle the differences between Cole and JR, so tonight it’s Alberto/Cole vs. JR/Cena. Cole says he’ll squash JR like refried beans.

Here’s Orton for no apparent reason. Oh ok he has one of those match things.

Randy Orton/Sheamus/John Morrison vs. Mark Henry/Christian/Cody Rhodes

We’re back after a break and Orton vs. Christian starts us off. Oh and Orton vs. Rhodes is official for the PPV. Christian gets beaten down so it’s off to Rhodes vs. Sheamus. That doesn’t go well for Little Dust so here’s Henry. Orton goes after Rhodes on the floor to a huge pop and Rhodes runs away. They run up the ramp and we go to a break. Back with Morrison hammering on Henry and getting dropped with one punch.

It’s 2-2 now and Christian misses a cross body. Morrison hits one of his own for two. Christian loads up the Killswitch but Morrison counters into the C4 for two. Christian goes after the neck that was injured like three months ago and it’s off to Henry again. He drops Morrison with a headbutt and it’s time for the Canadian to work on the neck of Morrison again. John fires off something like a Pele but can’t escape Henry. I guess it’s the gravitational pull.

Off to the bear hug which is as old school of a heel power move as you can get. Morrison tries a tornado DDT but has to settle for a guillotine on the top instead. Morrison shows some intelligence by going around Henry instead of over him, but Christian takes Sheamus off the apron and now they go into the crowd in a brawl. Morrison hits the Flying Chuck or whatever it is but walks into the Slam for the pin at about 12:30.

Rating: C. Well considering this was supposed to be a six man tag and for the most part it was a four man tag and would up being a two man tag, there’s only so high of a grade you can give it. Henry beating Morrison is fine and it gives Henry some of his heat back after getting beaten up by Big Show twice in a row.

Punk vs. Miz later, which is a match that happened under HHH also but is praised for being made by Ace here. Go figure.

Brodus Clay is still coming.

The Bellas come in to hit on Ace and he calls whoever he was talking to back. Ricardo comes in to a reaction and tries to say Alberto is here. Alberto gets a moderate face pop. A lot of Spanish is spoken and the winner of the tag match gets to pick the stipulation of the title match Sunday.

Eve Torres vs. Natalya

Eve gets the title shot Sunday. It’s your basic Divas match and Natalya of course spanks her a bit because that’s what she hates. It’s mocking though so it’s ok I guess? Natalya hammers on her for a bit but Eve hits some kind of spinning takedown and the moonsault for the pin at 2:13. This was nothing.

CM Punk vs. The Miz

Of course there is talking first. Miz talks about how they cost Punk his title shots and then got rid of HHH which Punk couldn’t. Truth says he can’t stand people that run their mouths. Truth and Miz run their mouths more but here’s HHH to even things up. The bell is after the break. Punk takes it to the mat and hooks a chinlock almost immediately but Miz gets a rope, which Truth points out very loudly.

Miz grabs a headlock and the fans loudly boo. Out to the floor and Punk hits a big dive followed by an Eddie Guerrero hilo for two. Truth tries to cheat and HHH goes over for the evil glare. Springboard clothesline gets two for Punk. Miz takes over with his traditionally bland offense. Jerry talks about looking forward to HHH being back in the ring at full force. You mean like he was what, two months ago?

Truth tries to cheat again so this time HHH gets in the ring. You know, because that’s not going to cause more double teaming or anything. How can a Cerebral Assassin be so stupid as a face? Off to a chinlock and Jerry quotes Taylor Swift of all people. Miz gets a kick to the chest for two. Corner clothesline hits and back to the chinlock. Punk tries to fight back with the knee in the corner but Miz gets a boot up.

Miz goes up (?) and jumps into a spinwheel kick to put both guys down. Punk is sent to the floor and the fans are incredibly into this show. Truth hits Punk with the bottle of water and HHH goes after him…and here’s Johnny Ace saying stop the match because HHH has an immigration problem or something. We’ll pay no attention to the fact that he isn’t part of the match I guess. It ended at 8:45.

Ok no it didn’t because we’re back with Miz holding a chinlock on and the match is still going. Can this match make up its mind? Punk starts his comeback and hits a neckbreaker for no cover. Cole’s voice sounds different and sounds like a voiceover. The Macho elbow hits and it’s GTS time. That gets reversed but Punk rolls Miz up for the pin at approximately

Rating: C. This was just ok at best, mainly because Miz is very boring on offense. The elimination of HHH was fine because it was to set up the post match beatdown on Punk which gives them a chance in the match on Sunday. Either way, not much going on here but these two don’t have good matches against each other, which is far too common a thing with Miz.

Post match Miz gets beaten down until referees get them out. Truth gets in another shot after running back in, as does Miz.

Here’s Team Vickie. Vickie yells in Spanish a lot first. She says she’s a Mexican goddess and she’s something about Angelina Jolie. The latest tag title shot for Ziggler and Swagger is announced for the PPV. Dolph plugs the US and calls himself the Heel. There’s a good and simple name. Swags tries to sing the Star Spangled Banner but is about as popular as Volkoff was in the 80s. He yells at the fans instead and here’s the reason he’s here.

Jack Swagger vs. Zack Ryder

Swagger hammers him to start but Ryder gets his knees up and the Rough Ryder ends this at 35 seconds. Literally that’s the whole match.

The heels go after Zack but Mason Ryan makes the save. Why it’s not Air Boom is beyond me but I guess that would make sense. It’s supposed to be Ryan vs. Ziggler but Team Vickie leaves. Ryan calls him back and their match is next.

Mason Ryan vs. Dolph Ziggler

This is joined in progress and Ryan is overpowering him which is expected because Ryan is bigger and stronger. Ryan has an awesome body but his offense and in ring abilities are leaving something to be desired. Vickie slaps Ryan on the floor and he charges back in to beat on Dolph some more. Ryan hammers away in the corner….and it’s a DQ at 2:40. Well that was worthless.

Ryan cleans house afterwards. So let me get this straight: Air Boom is booked to face Team Vickie on Sunday but instead we have two other unrelated guys beat one of the challengers in 35 seconds and then beat the other one so badly he gets disqualified. And people wonder why we say WWE is missing it right now.

Cena is with Ross and Ross isn’t sure if he’s ready to be in a match because it can cost Cena the title match Sunday. Cena says it’s cool because he can handle Del Rio. JR uses bad words about Cole.

In the arena, Cole gets his mic and says he’s going to take care of JR tonight. He says his wife is Mexican so the fans have to like him and he goes to the back.

Back and we hear about Smackdown being long running or something. Josh Matthews is in on commentary now.

We run down the card for Vengeance to fill in some time. Orton vs. Rhodes isn’t for the title I don’t think.

John Cena/Jim Ross vs. Alberto Del Rio/Michael Cole

The announcers start us off and Cole talks a lot of trash until JR clocks him. Off to the wrestlers for a wrestling match. What a concept. Alberto and Cena smirk at each other and speed things up. The fans are booing Cena…I think. Off to a chinlock by the champ and the fans are cheering for Cena. Now it’s Cena with the chinlock as Josh says Cena weighs 251lbs. That means he gained 20 pounds since his entrance.

Del Rio takes over and we’re waiting on the hot tag to Ross it seems. Cole gets some pikes in at Cena and Del Rio gets two. Alberto hits a top rope shot to the head and some kicks. Cena can’t see Alberto. Back to the chinlock and the fans cheer Cena but aren’t really booing Alberto. The Mexican gets a German on the American for two. Cena fires off some stuff but a running enziguri in the corner stops him for two.

Alberto goes up but misses a senton back splash and Cena engages his finishing sequence. Del Rio runs from the AA and tags in Cole. Cena gives him kind of a belly to belly to bring him in and makes the hot tag to JR. Is JR a big deal in Mexico? I mean, wouldn’t he be on the English commentary team which most people in Mexico don’t hear? An AA ends Cole and JR gets the win with an ankle lock at 11:40.

Rating: D+. Man this was boring. The Spanish/English/JR thing is still confusing but again it’s WWE which at the moment is pretty stupid. I wasn’t into this match for the most part because it was just Del Rio vs. Cena and then a screwy ending. Not much to see here and another weak main event from Raw, which is becoming a tradition.

Post match Alberto tries to attack Cena but Cena hits an AA and starts counting. He hits Del Rio with the steps and counts to ten. Last man standing it is.

Overall Rating: D+. I guess they’re just waiting for Rock to come in and save us, but DANG these shows have been boring lately. What even happened here? We have a stipulation added to the main event that isn’t going to mean much. HHH is thrown out of a country that isn’t going to host the PPV so it’s not like that matters. Two matches were added to the PPV but they were nothing special either. I have no idea what the goal was here and the main event was stupid on top of all that. Announcers mean very little and it was way too focused on Cole again tonight. Bad show, but WAY better than last week.

Results
Mark Henry/Christian/Cody Rhodes b. Randy Orton/Sheamus/John Morrison – World’s Strongest Slam to Morrison
Eve Torres b. Natalya – Moonsault
CM Punk b. The Miz – Rollup
Zack Ryder b. Jack Swagger – Rough Ryder
Dolph Ziggler b. Mason Ryan via DQ when Ryan wouldn’t stop beating Ziggler
John Cena/Jim Ross b. Michael Cole/Alberto Del Rio – Ankle lock to Cole

 

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