Monday Night Raw – October 24, 2011 – The Road To Miami Begins

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 24, 2011
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

We’re past Vengeance now and everything is about as it was before hand. Alberto is still champion, Henry is still champion, Nash is still irrelevant, Miz and Truth are still causing trouble and everything else is still the same. Like I said for weeks, Vengeance didn’t need to exist. Anyway, now things are all leading towards Survivor Series so the hype machine is being cranked up. Let’s get to it.

After a quick recap of last night’s events, here’s HHH to really get us going. He’s in serious Game mode tonight and the fans all cheer for him. He says it’s a tough business and he was taught from the beginning that you can make friends or you can make money. HHH however has made both. He thought there were guys that could be real friends after the cameras went off.

There were guys like Waltman and Nash but somewhere along the way things changed. For them it became about money and power. When HHH got power, some of those guys wound up just being there to latch on. He thought Nash was one of the good ones but then that started to change. Nash broke his heart last night and tonight HHH wants to take it out on him. He knows Nash is here tonight and he calls the big man out.

HHH shouts for him for awhile until here’s Johnny Ace. Ace does his usual talking thing and HHH says shut up in his angry voice. Even though Ace is the boss of Raw, he still answers to the COO, as in HHH. So tonight, Ace is going to find Nash and bring him to the Game. HHH says give Nash a contract or do whatever it takes to get him here. HHH doesn’t care what or where it is, but he’s going to get back at Nash and he’s going to go to jail for what he does. HHH goes up the ramp and looks back at Ace, allowing Nash to come through the entrance with a sledgehammer and whack HHH in the back with it.

HHH is all shaky and can’t stand as we cut back to Nash. Everyone is looking away and he walks down the hall in the back. We cut back to HHH who thinks he can stand but collapses and starts foaming at the mouth as we go to our first break.

Back with Cole and Lawler being all solemn about what they just saw. After some replays HHH is being loaded into the ambulance when Nash pops up again. He pulls HHH off the stretcher and stands him up against a wall where he pops him in the head with the hammer again. He’s loaded in again and we take another break.

Back with more replays. We’re 25 minutes into this and this is the entire show so far.

Randy Orton/Sheamus vs. Cody Rhodes/Christian

Orton and Christian start us off and that goes to Randy. Sheamus comes in via a slingshot shoulder block for two. Cole drops in the Irish name for whatever those forearms to the chest are called. Off to Rhodes but Sheamus manages to fire off another shoulder off the apron to the Canadian. Cody gets a Russian legsweep for two and hooks a chinlock as we take a break.

Back with Christian trying a Killswitch but Sheamus escapes with power. Cole starts up the talking about Twitter stuff. Didn’t he get most of that out of his system last night? Hot tag to Orton who fires off the powerslam on the Canadian. There’s the over the shoulder neckbreaker for two. Christian gets in a shot but is caught in the elevated DDT. RKO misses on Rhodes and Christian takes over with the pendulum kick and a jumping elbow from the middle rope.

The Americans slug it out until Cody hits a dropkick so he can tag in Christian. Off to a chinlock which eats up a little time. Christian goes up but jumps into a dropkick and here’s Sheamus. Irish Curse gets two on Rhodes and ORTON IS TRENDING BABY!!!! Beautiful Disaster staggers Sheamus and the spear from Christian gets two for Cody. Everything breaks down and Christian takes the RKO. They botch the finish as Rhodes was supposed to try the Beautiful Disaster and jump into the Brogue Kick. The kick hit the knee though so Sheamus hits a quick High Cross to end it at 9:00.

Rating: C+. Not bad but this was more like a house show main event than anything else. It picked up a bit but for the most part all they were doing was signature stuff. I’m not sure how many more times the good guys can beat these bad guys before it stops meaning anything but they’re approaching that point.

We get some pictures of Awesome Truth jumping Cena last night.

Ace is on the phone and has Otunga with him in the back. Ace is on the phone with Stephanie and says HHH is ok. Cena comes in and makes fun of Otunga, implying he’s Carlton from Fresh Prince. Cena demands a match with Awesome Truth so Ace makes Awesome Truth vs. Cena and a partner that Ace picks. Cena: “As long as he doesn’t carry a skateboard, he’ll be fine.” Old NWA fans will get that joke.

Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler

Non title. Santino loads up the Cobra quickly and Dolph runs. He’s back in the regular trunks tonight instead of the weird ones from last night. Dolph takes him down with the dropkick and Santino starts up his usual stuff. Swagger gets up on the apron and the Zig Zag ends it at 1:46. Just a squash.

We get a double heel beatdown until Mason Ryan makes the save.

The Bellas are talking about HHH’s attack and Ryder comes up, screaming that he’s Cena’s partner.

Del Rio has a victory speech up next.

Alberto talks about how he said he was going to do it and did. It’s the start of a new era or something and that he’ll be champion for a very long time. Cue the Cult of Personality and that’s Survivor Series I guess. He points out that he beat Alberto four weeks ago on Raw and mentions he never got a one on one match after getting MITB cashed in. Del Rio says he’ll fight any worthy opponent but Punk isn’t one. Come see him again when Punk has a better victory.

At this moment, Punk is at the back of the line. Punk says he’ll put Del Rio to sleep anyway. Cue Ace who makes the match for some reason. Punk wants to know the catch and it’s that Punk has to say he respects Ace. Punk: “Are you Aretha Franklin?” He goes on a rant about how things aren’t any better with Ace in charge. He actually references the Pillman/Sullivan Bookerman moment and says he respects you “Fun Man”.

Punk goes on a rant about Ace’s career in the ring and how he never was any good but got where he is by brown nosing everyone. He respects that someone who has done so little has gotten so far. No title shot for Punk now but Ace will take another week to take about it. Punk says cool, but think about this. He jumps Del Rio and loads up the GTS but Ricardo takes it instead.

Natalya vs. Alicia Fox

Make it quick even though Fox’s hips look good. Beth sits in on commentary for this. Total squash to start and Natalya works on the legs as Beth talks about cleaning the Divas Division up. Cole talks about Tweeting and JR because he doesn’t know what else to talk about. Natalya says tear time but gets kicked in the face and a sunset flip gets the pin at 2:11. Fox escapes the double beatdown.

Wade Barrett vs. John Morrison

Barrett runs as JR talks about tweeting even more. There are going to be photos that JR tweeted in a bit. Oh for goodness sake. Out to the floor and Barrett sends him into the barricade as we take a break. Back with Barrett in control and hitting a big boot for two. All Barrett so far other than a dive. Another kick puts John on the floor.

Morrison makes his comeback with his flippy offense and the running knee for two. Sunset flip gets the same but Barrett grabs a Bossman Slam for two. Wasteland is countered into a Russian legsweep. Starship Pain misses but Morrison lands on his feet. He tries the Flying Chuck and is supposed to jump into Wasteland but Barrett drops him. Regular Wasteland ends this at about 8:30.

Rating: C. Not bad here as Morrison’s de-push continues. He’ll probably have his leg broken by Henry or something to write him off TV. This was really just a match to help rebuild Barrett which is something that he needs right now. It’s not like Morrison is going anywhere or anything so this is fine.

We look back at the HHH/Nash stuff from earlier and hear that HHH has a concussion and a neck injury, possibly even a broken neck.

Time for Cole to talk. He gets up on the table and talks about JR tweeting and being in a live chat or something. Oh come on. This now needs its own segment? Cole shows some pictures JR tweeted and they’re making fun of JR. I hate this show right now. I really do. Cole is tired of JR so next week Cole is challenging JR to the Michael Cole Challenge. He doesn’t say what the rules are but if JR wins, Cole quits and JR gets his job back. Jerry is thrilled.

The Muppets will be on Raw next week. I have never been this happy. Truly, never.

Ryder is happy about being in the Raw main event when Awesome Truth jumps him.

Here are Awesome Truth for the main event but first of all, let’s talk about HHH. They talk about how HHH deserved it and Truth says nothing saves Cena until he gets got. Catchphrases take us to a break.

Awesome Truth vs. John Cena

Back and it’s a handicap match now. Miz starts off and does as well as you would think. Truth does about the same so the double teaming beings. Miz comes back in and hammers away a bit and the problems he has become more and more apparent every time he’s in the ring. Miz simply isn’t that good on offense. He’s not bad or anything, but offense isn’t his strong suit. Part of that is due to his size though as he’s kind of small.

Truth comes in again and is caught in the Protobomb for no cover. Back to Miz who misses his running shot in the corner. Cena starts up the finishing sequence but Truth comes in with the water bottle for the very lame DQ at 4:30. I guess they’re setting up for something later with this? They better be after this lame ending.

Rating: D. Miz and Truth were talking about a Revolution of some kind. If this is part of it, the Revolution may be televised, but not many people will be watching. This wasn’t much at all with the match only lasting a few minutes and being boring while it did so. Nothing to see here, but I guess that’s the point.

Miz and Truth both get chairs so here’s Ace again. He says stop it because it’s disrespectful. Ace throws them out to a surprising pop. He then stops them and says Cena can have a rematch with a partner of his own choosing. Cena yells about how anyone he picks is going to get beaten down or taken out, but then he stops and asks if he can choose anyone he wants. It was like he had a revelation. His choice: The Rock. Let me check. Yeah, just as I suspected: it’s on.

Overall Rating: C. I liked this show fairly well but it was no classic. The show is revolving around HHH and Ace more and more which isn’t incredibly interesting. Nothing was really bad tonight though which is a big perk and there seemed to be a point to almost everything. It’s not a terrible show and is a step up for Raw, but they need to start answering some stuff instead of just throwing out more and more questions.

Results
Sheamus/Randy Orton b. Cody Rhodes/Christian – High Cross to Rhodes
Dolph Ziggler b. Santino Marella – Zig Zag
Alicia Fox b. Natalya – Sunset Flip
Sheamus b. John Morrison – Wasteland
John Cena b. Awesome Truth via DQ when R-Truth hit Cena with a water bottle

 

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