WWE Raw: Results, Questions and Comments for September 27th

Usually I'd say this is the second week after Night Of Champions, but it's probably more appropriate to say that this is the last Raw before the Hell in a Cell pay per view.

I'm coming into this an hour late, so the first part of my article is going to be a bit different.  Bear with me.

Apparently, the show started with a segment between Daniel Bryan (Danielson) and The Miz regarding their differences, and then evolved into a tag match involving the folks from the United States Championship Match for the upcoming pay per view: The Miz and Alex Riley vs. American Dragon and John Morrison. 

Why would American Dragon, a guy who admittedly is not flashy and does not care for televised entertainment, pick a guy like John Morrison to be his tag team partner for the evening?  Wouldn't he pick someone who is as no-nonsense as he is?

After the match, John Morrison and The Miz fight, and American Dragon decides a great idea is to hit a suicide dive on them?  Not the smartest idea for a guy who might need to find another tag team partner at some point, as he ends up pissing off John Morrison, starting a fight between the two of them, ultimately lessening his chances of retaining the United States Championship at Hell in a Cell as John Morrison is added to the match.  Talk about unintended consequences from unfortunate decisions.

From a backstage standpoint, I'm not sure why WWE would've picked John Morrison for this match, aside from possibly his history with The Miz and clearly wanting to expand the match for the pay per view.  The fact that he's almost a random choice for American Dragon's tag team partner and the fact that he's growing a beard makes me wonder if Morrison is going to turn heel and screw over Daniel Bryan (Danielson) tonight or in the near future.

I'm actually not upset at all that I missed the Diva's Battle Royal to determine the No. 1 contendership.  The fact that Natalya Neidhart is now the No. 1 contender is a good thing, as she can actually wrestle, although I fear we're going to once again get the same angle with LayCool where they're forced to decide who is going to defend the championship at the pay per view.  Until those belts change hands or the division switches over to focus on tag teams, I'm not really going to care what's going on there.

Apparently they're still moving forward with the mystery stalker angle involving Ted DiBiase and Maryse being targeted by someone, and although we still don't know which one it is, supposedly we'll find out next week.  The last thing WWE needs is another Diva on the roster, so I hope it's Maryse who is being targeted.  Does anyone have any guesses for who it might be?

Sheamus fought The Great Khali in a match that I can't believe was all that entertaining, aside from Sheamus showing that he's still hardcore and can get himself disqualified.  There was no chance the outcome would be different than Sheamus coming out looking strong, though the way in which he won was decent, I suppose.  Why not have Sheamus pick someone who is more known for being hardcore?  Are there any guys like that left on the roster?

I also heard that Michael Cole mentioned Mick Foley's new book.  Does anyone else think that seems a bit odd?  What are the chances that maybe Foley is the General Manager (a concept suggested to me by another author from GuysNation)? 

Speaking of the General Manager, Edge apparently continued his "feud" with the disembodied anonymous authority figure; only this week, the GM gets a computerized voice?  I realize that an alternative would've been more "and I quote..." stuff from Michael Cole, but couldn't they have done better than this?  I didn't see this segment, but I heard the voice after the match between Edge and Cena, and I was happy with how Edge dealt with the situation. 

Why is it that Edge keeps feuding with people who have vocal distortions (Great Khali before this)?

Apparently the GM decides it's a great idea for Edge to face John Cena right then and there.  Good thing Edge was already dressed in his wrestling gear, right?  Providence.

So Edge taps out to the STFU as WWE decides it's completely acceptable to waste a pay per view match for a mid-show main event just to get Cena ready for his Hell in a Cell match with Wade Barrett... and the General Manager's laptop now has real-time voice-over, even when the laptop is broken?

At least now the WWE will have to do something different if they want to continue the anonymous GM storyline.  If they get another laptop, I hope Edge destroys it too.

We are reminded that at Hell in a Cell, if John Cena beats Wade Barrett, then Nexus disbands.  If Wade Barrett wins, John Cena must join Nexus.  Does anyone else get the sinking feeling that John Cena is going to win that match and the WWE is going to put an end to one of the more entertaining portions of their shows from the past four months?

The potential for John Cena to join Nexus is far greater than the alternative, just as it was when Rey Mysterio nearly had to join the Straight Edge Society, but WWE went the wrong route with Rey beating CM Punk in the decisive match, and now they've lost out on a few other things S.E.S. could've done.  I'm not feeling good about the possibilities for Sunday.

Match: Evan Bourne and Mark Henry vs. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater

If you're going to pair up two guys from Nexus, why not have it be David Otunga and Justin Gabriel?  They're very different competitors and could match up nicely against Mark Henry and Evan Bourne.  There's no way you're going to want David Otunga to be a singles competitor, and there's no way you're going to want Justin Gabriel to try to hold his own on the mic; so for now, why not put them together as more of a partnership, or at least replace Justin Gabriel with Heath Slater (who also isn't great on the mic)?

Smackdown is live this Friday from Oklahoma City, and Michael Cole mentions as a throwaway comment that Jim Ross will be in attendance.  He probably should've mentioned that a little more emphatically, shouldn't he?  That's a fairly big deal, in my opinion.

How tiny does Mark Henry make Evan Bourne and Justin Gabriel look?  Also, I originally thought Heath Slater was a smaller guy, and while he doesn't seem as big as most of the other guys in Nexus, when he stands next to Mark Henry you really get an idea that he's average-sized.

Outcome:  Justin Gabriel scores the pinfall for his team after Heath Slater helps him reverse the pinfall attempt following an Evan Bourne shooting star press.

After all the losses Evan Bourne has suffered over the past few months, making his win on pay per view over Chris Jericho all but nullified, wouldn't it have hurt Justin Gabriel's stock if he would've been pinned by Evan Bourne?

If John Cena is at such odds with Nexus, why doesn't he rush the ring to put a stop to Nexus beating the hell out of Evan Bourne?  Maybe he's happy about joining Nexus.

Why is it that Nexus has been around for months and this is the first time they're going to Smackdown?  Why was that never on their plan?  Is it just because the people at SyFy want all the top guys to show up on their debut show and Nexus is a big angle?  For those of you who watched Smackdown, you've already heard that John Cena will be there.

So apparently McIntyre and Rhodes—the tag team champions, for those of you who don't watch Smackdown—are in the house tonight, and they're scheduled to face Hart Dynasty once again?  I was happy with the outcome of their match on Smackdown because it gave McIntyre and Rhodes a victory while giving Hart Dynasty a reason to deserve a rematch (you can read the details in my article on Friday's Smackdown), but couldn't they have waited a little longer before having the rematch?  They could've just hyped it tonight and held it next week...or at least during Friday's Smackdown.

I'm very happy to hear the announcement about Johnny Knoxville being on Raw next week—not because I'm a fan of Jackass, but because they listed him as a "Guest Star", not a "Guest Host".  Having people show up and get involved somehow while hyping an upcoming project is fine with me, so long as they don't get too involved, but most of the time when a person is a "Guest Host" or a guest "General Manager" for the evening, they detract from the product.  Don't ask me what the difference is, as I realize that there's no actual authority vested in them, but the way things have usually worked out has been unfortunate.

World Tag Team Championship Match - Hart Dynasty vs. McIntyre and Rhodes (c)

After burying the Hart Dynasty on commentary last week when Tyson Kidd and D.H. Smith were visiting the announcers' table, now Michael Cole is putting over Tyson Kidd and burying D.H. Smith?  Not a great way to help put over the former tag team champions, since they're one of the only teams in WWE cohesive enough to actually have a team name (The Dudebusters being the only other ones, as I don't really count "The Usos" as a team name).

Outcome:  McIntyre and Rhodes win cleanly, albeit with a little bit of confusion betwixt the Hart Dynasty as Tyson Kidd accidentally connects with D.H. Smith.

D.H. Smith is upset with Tyson Kidd over messing up, and he walks out on them?  Hopefully he gets over it.

I'm being optimistic about it so I don't cry myself to sleep over the fact that the nephews of my favorite wrestler of all time might not be a team anymore, so I might not get the chance to be fooled by the opening of their theme music every week.

Did John Cena not get the memo Friday that he'd be at Smackdown?  This sounds like he just made the decision to show up during his conversation with R-Truth.

Is it just me, or did Chris Jericho just ask the crowd "do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?"  Does anyone else remember that recent classic movie line?

If Chris Jericho is the Viper Killer, could that make him The Mongoose?

Does anyone else remember the other wrestler who used to call himself The Mongoose?

Wow, does anyone else remember when Chris Jericho beat Villano III?  That was a great match.  Glad to hear him mention it.

For my thoughts on the main event match between Chris Jericho and Randy Orton, including the shocking aftermath, please view the full version of this article at www.GuysNation.com!