WWE Monday Night Raw 11/23/09 Recap: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
Opening of the Show – Guest host Jesse Ventura and Randy Orton: I said it with Piper…the guest host thing works when it’s an ex-wrestler. They know what they are doing, and Ventura was great in this segment and all of the others. I got chills when he started talking about how no one who had held a title would be getting a shot.   He set up Breakthrough Battle Royal Qualifying Matches (BBRQM) and it was a great narrative device for the night.
BBRQM – Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler: One of the nice things about a night like this is I get to see some guys that I don’t watch a lot of… (I get my Smackdown fix from Jordan Kessler, right here on TWD), and Dolph is one of them. This was a well wrestled match. Dolph fans would rather have him win a qualifying match, I’m sure, but Kofi needs to continue beating quality opponents. No shame for…what’s his name again? Kofi hit “Thunder” for the win. 3.5 stars
BBRQM – Sheamus vs. Finlay: I’m Finlay, and I like to job. Hey…the guy is fifty, and he got two seconds more offense against Sheamus than anyone else has. Problem for him, it was only two seconds. Nice beatdown of Finlay by Sheamus after he had pinned him with what I call the “Razor’s Edge.” 3 stars
Backstage Promo with Randy Orton and Jesse Ventura: Strong work from both guys here. Ventura referenced the fact that Randy “retires” old guys, and that old guys need to learn to stop coming back. Hogan…Hogan.
CM Punk in-ring Promo: Another thing that I miss from not watching a lot of Smackdown is one of these “Straight Edge” Promos. Don’t know if it’s getting old or not, but it was newer to me, and I liked it.
Cm Punk vs. John Cena: Nice match. CM Punk looked really strong here, with major offense on Cena. Cena did well, and I saw some moves that I’ve never seen, including the Attitude Adjustment from the second rope that Cena used to pin Punk with. 3.5 stars
Backstage Promo with Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon: I’m old enough that one of my favorite announce teams of all time is this combo. They were great. McMahon played the straight man to Ventura’s crazy guy so well. It was good to see that they did not ignore this history.
BBQRM – Six Man Tag – Swagger, Chavo & Masters vs. R-Truth, MVP & Henry: R-Truth beat Chris Masters with a Flying Fist. This was a decent match, and it did well to further push R-Truth. Not sure what’s up with the Swagger burial. Maybe he spit in Vince’s eye while talking to him or something. 2.5 stars
Backstage Promo with DX: There is time at a later date for DX to implode. Were the seeds sown last night at Survivor Series? Maybe. But no reason to have them break up over it. Loved Shawn mentioning his eye problem, and saying he was aiming for Cena.
BBQRM – Randy Orton (in place of Primo Colon) vs. Evan Bourne: So Bourne comes out, and as Primo makes his way out, Orton attacks him, and puts him out and demands he be given a shot. And he gets it from Ventura, who has always broken the rules. And of course, he destroys Bourne, finishing him up with the RKO. 2 stars
Diva Tag Match – Layla, Michelle McCool & Jillian vs. Mickie, Kelly & Melina: The match sucked. But, hey the Gobbely Gooker made an appearance? That makes it good already. Melina pinned Jillian. Maryse made her return, (in the Gooker outfit), and gave a beatdown to Melina. So, Maryse is back? Okay…Iguess anything that makes Shane Howard happy makes me happy. 1 star and a Gooker.
DX vs. The Hart Dynasty (with an appearance by Chris Jericho): So Bret Hart recently said that he watches everything the Hart Dynasty does, but can’t stomach to watch Hunter or Shawn. What did he do here? If he watched, he saw a pretty good match. After Triple H Pedigreed Tyson Kidd for the pin, Chris Jericho came out. He announced that he was the best wrestler in the world, (an obvious reference to being announced as TWD’s No. 1 ranked wrestler in the world). Then he announced that at TLC, he and Show would be defending the titles in a TLC match vs. DX. 3 stars
Batista in-ring Promo interrupted by Kane: I like the bad-ass Batista. It makes all of his limitations watchable. Not sure what was up with him backing down from Kane…we’ll see where this goes. A match was made between the two for Smackdown this Friday…goody for you Jordan.
BBRQM Tag Team – Legacy vs. Cryme Tyme: This was a good short match that was never really in doubt. DiBiase hit Dream Street on Chad for the win. 2 stars
Breakthrough Battle Royal with Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon announcing: Ahhh…Saturday Night’s Main Event music…take me back. I would have loved to hear some “happy go lucky corny” Vince, but you can’t have everything. He did a good job anyway. The two of them were arguing so much, I mistook them for Ray Bogusz and…well…anyone. The Battle Royal itself left a bit to be desired. The final three were Orton, Sheamus, and Kofi, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure which of the three was going to win. And then I was shocked…Kofi eliminated Orton, and then Sheamus eliminated him. And the second it happened, it made the most sense to me. Orton and Kofi aren’t done with their feud… What a push for Sheamus. 2 stars
Contract Signing – John Cena and Sheamus: When I saw Cena belittling Sheamus, I thought, he’s about to get his butt whipped. But they did the staring and the hard words, and then signed. And then Jesse “The best guest host ever” started “shooting” on Cena about how there is a “Conspiracy” to keep him the champion. When Cena’s attention was on Ventura, Sheamus kicked him in the head, and then powerslammed him through the contract signing table. Ventura then announced that the title match for TLC was a Tables Match. I’ll withhold judgment for the moment to see where this goes. I hope Sheamus is ready to swim in the deep end, because otherwise they won’t push younger guys for another ten years.
The Bad
-All of the “Give Thanks” promos, INCLUDING Santino and The Miz. That’s saying something.
-No Miz or Drew McIntyre in the Battle Royal, or even qualifying matches. Huh?
The Ugly
Nothing… I was entertained throughout.
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Jillian looked sad tonight…not that I can blame her.
Miz was seriously wasted. He’s the best thing on the show damnit.
I actually popped when they said Ventura and McMahon would be announcing. Another bit of history I was happy they didn’t ignore: Ventura was scheduled to face Hogan for the belt, but right before that was when his lungs developed blood clots.
Anyone else think Cena is trying too hard to channel another Super John (specifically, John Elway) with this new merchandise?
Should have had McMahon come out in the light blue suit.
Woot woot! I made a cameo and it was thankfully in the Good section.
Surprised by the omission of Miz and Drew. And what? Was ECW not invited to the Thanksgiving celebration? Wow! No Shelton Benjamin in the qualifiers? Where’s Al!?
Ahh, Jesse, you did well there at the end of the show.
I am sure people are going to bemoan the contendership of Sheamus but I don’t mind it at all. And hell, Sheamus did worse to Cena than Miz did throughout their entire “feud.”
So much for his chance, tune in to ECW tonight to see Benjamin not get a title shot.
I haven’t watched a lot of Sheamus since he debuted so can someone tell me what he’s done to be in the main event all of a sudden? Good luck to the guy and everything but I’m just curious why he’s getting this push.
Damn I sound like a hypocrite
. Other people and myself have been calling for fresh blood in the main event for ages and as soon as I see someone new I immediately question why he’s there. lol.
That was expected, though. Many are going to go that route. Sheamus hasn’t done jack sh*t, no titles whatsoever but he’s the No. 1 contender after feuding with Benjamin, Goldust, and beating up Noble/Lawler/ring announcers/jobbers.
He really hasn’t done anything but be dominant in the areas he has been asked to be. Much like when Lesnar came through and decimated whoever was placed in front of him, we might be seeing similar here.
TRIPLE H Beeby, TRIPLE H.
It’s interesting, watching this blend of Raw and Smackdown, it’s apparent how different the two shows are. Batista comes out, cuts a promo, and is interupted by Kane. Immediately, they have a match for next week. Raw, on the other hand, takes forever to get to sensical matches. Where the hell did DX vs. Dynasty come from? Still, it also means Raw takes more time with its builds and can bring off something like Orton-Kingston. Even Sheamus getting a shot at Cena. The match-up is left-field, but Sheamus’s build has been steady.
Cena: “this is all I got!” He tapped into a vein of “my life is sad and I don’t know how not to go super-Cena” in this promo. I kind of like it. I like the idea of a desperate, almost crazy Cena who takes “the title is my life” to a whole ‘nother level.
Sheamus getting the shot? Wow. At least it’s someone new.
I will admit I have not watched any WWE programming in several weeks, but after talking to “The Governor” earlier this month and being a fan of his, I had to tune into Raw.
I’m glad I did. This was the best night of the show I can remember in a long time. Of all the hosts I’ve seen on the show (including Dibiase, Shaq and Barker), I contend Ventura did the best job. He obviously still understands the business and how it works. Maybe the fans should have redirected the “You’ve still got it” chants they gave to Jim Neidhart on TNA a few weeks ago to Ventura.
The weakest part of the night was the disgraceful Indians vs. Pilgrims divas match. It was the only segment where I hit my fast forward button on my DVR. Yes, Maryse coming back was nice, but the rest of it sucked.
As for the Santino Thanksgiving skit, I liked it. I thought it was running the risk of being just another awful cheesy promo until the Vickie Guerrero bit at the end, which had be laughing. That was a nice play there.
Next to Ventura, the best part of the show was seeing the young guys actually get a chance. The Miz should have been in the battle royale, but one could contend Morrison should have been, too. Perhaps it’s because they’re already champions that they were excluded.
I, for one, am excited to see Sheamus get a chance. TLC is just going to be a transitional blow-off pay-per-view bridging Survivor Series to the Rumble, so why not take a risk?
i didn’t see the show but thoroughly enjoyed the article. thanx.
is it just me or is sheamus gettin the lex luger push circa 1994????i also have been saying they need new blood in the main event scene and it is a throwaway ppv(even though jeff hardy won the belt at this ppv last year diffrent name same ish)the pale skinned guy just does not do it for me i mean this guy has been out of fcw what 5 months and now he is main eventing a ppv???? anyway the body needs to come and be the full time gm of raw….is anyone looking as forward to when the rock guest hosts as i am?????
i think Sheamus is a great idea. Cena needs a fued and as we all know whoever he fueds with will get buried. Now, with Sheamus its a little like transitional fueds of old (anyone remember Bret and the Warlord??). Even if he buries Sheamus i don’t think its a big deal because he doesn’t have that much credibility to loose and can always go to ECW and re-establish himself.
The Miz recovered from a Cena burial sure Sheamus can too. I think people need to stop overthinking. We have 2 great fueds on Raw now. Kingston – Orton and DX – Jerishow (umm why doesn’t Jericho ever use the name Jerishow?)…. plus we have Cena actually facing someone he hasn’t before… AWESOME TOOO