WWE RAW Results, Questions and Comments From Oct. 18

This is the last RAW prior to Bragging Rights, and there are still questions left to be answered.

Will John Cena have a match at Bragging Rights?  I can't even remember the last time there was a pay per view that John Cena wasn't a part of (aside from when he was on the shelf with an injury).

Who's the final member of Team RAW?  Would people think I'm weird for calling it Team Red?  The readers who enjoy my Smackdown articles are cool with the "Team Blue" references.

RAW is live from Calgary, Alberta, Canada tonight, will there be a Bret Hart sighting?  Will we get another piece of the Hart Dynasty saga?  It seems like they're going to be split up, but it's not definite...yet.  Could they potentially bury the hatchet and work their way into a Unified Tag Team Championship match at the pay per view (since Orton and McIntyre aren't too busy) and then maybe make the breakup official on Sunday?

Are things done between "American Dragon" Daniel Bryan (Danielson) and Sheamus?  Will we get any sort of follow up on that tonight?

Will Alex Riley be wearing an outfit which matches Michael McGuillicutty and Husky Harris again this week, totally disregarding the uber-formal three-piece suit The Miz wears?

Can another member of Nexus actually get a match at the pay per view, not just Wade Barrett?  (Justin Gabriel, we're looking at you, kid)

All that and hopefully more...as it's time for the Oct. 18 edition of Monday Night RAW.

Teddy Long starts off RAW, and apparently he's taking over...and apparently the fans don't like that idea.  For the first time ever, the fans cheered when they found out that the RAW general manager had sent a message.  And...now they're booing because Michael Cole is making the announcement.

Did Teddy Long actually think that the RAW general manager was going to stay silent and let him stay in the ring?

Why does the Bragging Rights trophy look like a cheap knock-off of the Stanley Cup?  Couldn't they cheaply replicate something less famous, or make the trophy look a little more normal?

If Michael Cole ends up being the RAW general manager, this segment right here pokes a huge hole in the angle.

Bringing out the members of Team Smackdown is a nice touch.  Give the fans a glimpse of these guys looking at one another face to face, and the opportunity to talk smack to one another.

Seeing the Smackdown guys wearing their Team Blue shirts along with their ring attire just further solidifies the fact that more guys need to wear long pants, or at least board-shorts.  The majority of the men in America probably don't wear underwear as short as what those guys are wrestling in.

When Michael Cole started yelling at Teddy Long, saying "you're on the wrong show, go back to Friday", I think Michael Cole just figured out what it feels like every week that we realize he's still sitting at the Smackdown announce desk.

It's certainly no surprise that Team RAW (which I want to call "Red RAW, Red RAW, Red RAW") showed up, and this is certainly providing enough hype for me to get things to Bragging Rights.  I wonder if WWE is going to have more pay per views with only three weeks of build towards it.

Holy Crap @ the return of Ezekiel Jackson as one of the members of Team RAW.  That's a huge return.

When exactly did Alex Riley qualify to be on Team RAW?  Where was R-Truth?  Didn't he qualify?

Did Michael Cole actually think that the footage from last week's RAW was some tough footage to watch?  Was there ACTUALLY a disclaimer before it by the lead announcer?  Sad.

So we're reminded about the main event for RAW—Orton and Cena against Harris and McGuillicutty...but they fail to remind us that if Harris and McGuillicutty win the match they become members of Nexus.  MicFAIL Cole.

We return from commercial and we get the World Tag Team Champions in the ring, no entrance needed I suppose, and it seems like McIntyre and Rhodes are in action.

Match: Hart Dynasty versus McIntyre and Rhodes

Nicely done, WWE. 

Apparently this isn't a title match, it's for a chance to rise in the tag team ranks.  I still maintain that if any competitor (or team, in the instance of a tag division) defeats the champion in a non-title match, it should give that person an automatic title shot.

Does anyone else think that Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre seem less like a team now that McIntyre is wearing red tights instead of black ones?  They have no team name, they don't typically come to the ring together, and their attire looks nothing alike?  Great.  WWE hates tag team wrestling.

Outcome

Some Hart Dynasty miscommunication leads to the opportunity McIntyre needs to hit his future shock DDT, putting down the challenge of the home-town favorites.

Things are looking good for The Hart Dynasty, they seem like they might be able to pick up the victory, but when Tyson Kidd things they're ready to go for the Hart attack, Smith decides he'd rather finish it off with the sharpshooter instead of the move that won them the tag titles a few months ago. 

So why would Natalya side with D.H. Smith in that argument?  Why should we think that Kidd is being selfish?  Smith is the one who cost his team the match, and I'd blame him for what happened a few weeks ago between the duo as well.

I shouldn't be surprised that people in Calgary booed John Cena, as he's not their type of wrestler.  Hearing them chant "We want Bret" doesn't surprise me either, but hearing them chant it during a short segment just disappoints me.  It's like they're getting bored during a 30-second spot.

Match: Goldust vs Zack Ryder

Is anyone else getting Marlena-flashbacks when they see Goldust come to the ring with platinum blonde Aksana (from NXT)?

Outcome

Goldust defeats Zack Ryder in a fairly short match using his final cut suplex and Maryse chases Aksana around the ring trying to get the Million Dollar belt back... in another example of WWE wasting another chest-bouncing opportunity to use the John Morrison slow-motion camera.

I might be one of the only people to be happy to see Ryder and Goldust battle on RAW, but I tend to think it's a good thing.  I like it when the under-card is made to look somewhat important.  I think WWE underestimates the effect it could have on buyrates.

Just a quick note on the introduction for this Friday's Smackdown...did they just insinuate that Randy Orton had never been on Smackdon before?  I find that hard to believe, but this would be somewhat historic if that's the case.  (consider this an opportunity to let me know when the last time Orton was on Smackdown, as I'm sure most of you remember something historic that I don't)

Why is the little kid from the PSP commercials doing guest host duties?  I realize he's in the Knucklehead movie...though I'm guessing that I'd prefer him to be there instead of Mark Fuerstein again.  Melora Hardin could've been a better option, though.

John Cena has to do everything that Wade Barrett tells him to, right?  Well, he's allowed to do additional things that Barrett doesn't say anything about, right?  So when Cena gets the water thrown in his face and Heath Slater laughs like a jackass, why can't Cena just haul off and punch him in the face?  Barrett might order him to apologize, but I'm sure Cena would gladly pretend to be sorry after the great feeling of burying five knuckles into the mug of the Wendy's look-a-like.

Why does WWE think it's necessary to show us the SAME rewind footage from last week TWICE in the first hour of RAW?  Once is enough.  Chances are that people remember what happened last week, or they're not smart enough to realize what the significance of it is anyway.

Match: Cena and Orton vs McGillicutty and Harris

Going back to my earlier point about Cena doing things without being told to by Barrett, did Wade tell Cena to salute the crowd or throw his hat into the crowd?  No, but he still did it.

Should we be surprised that the other four members of Nexus decided they wanted to watch from ringside? 

I enjoy the flip-over neck-snapper a la Mr Perfect that Dolph Ziggler does, but how much cooler does it seem when Mike McGuillicutty does it from the second turnbuckle?  I bet he's excited to get to do a move that most would attribute to his father.

Wouldn't it be a smart idea for Wade Barrett to tell John Cena to attack Randy Orton?  Technically John Cena has to give it his very best during the match.

Outcome

Randy Orton hits the RKO and gets the pin on Mike McGuillicutty after John Cena hits an attitude adjustment on Husky Harris

How badly does John Cena wish he could do the thing where Undertaker gets the lights to shut off for a couple moments so he can knock some people out without them knowing what's going on?  This might be the first and last time he'd use that to save Randy Orton, but I'm sure he'd love to do it.

When hitting his finishing move, did Heath Slater just make the noise that Johnny from the Cobra Kai dojo did when unsuccessfully attacking Mr Miagi on Halloween? 

Upon hearing Wade Barrett order him to hurry up and get into the ring because he "doesn't have all day", is there any chance that John Cena was thinking that RAW still had an hour left, but that USA would likely give them an extra hour of over-run if they wanted?

Does anyone else think that WWE built up Randy Orton over the past few months just to have him be a side note in the feud between John Cena and Nexus?

Why do we have to sit through a Vickie Guerrero segment if we don't even get to look at Kaitlyn while Vickie and Dolph are talking?

How great would it be if Kaitlyn showed up alongside "American Dragon"?

Does WWE even realize that I'm really thinking about ordering Bragging Rights simply because of the match between "American Dragon" and Dolph Ziggler?  It's going to be a phenomenal match and I don't want to miss it. 

Why did the WWE diva's show up to taunt Vickie Guerrero?  Why did they decide to throw glitter on her? 

How happy is Bryan that he had that belt covering up his midsection when the Divas were all around him?

Did anyone else get a flashback to Andy Bernard dancing during the Beasley-Halpert wedding weekend when "American Dragon" tried to do the splits and "hurt himself"?

Match: Alicia Fox vs Natalya

Why are we watching Natalya and Alicia Fox?  Is Alicia Fox about to take back the push Natalya started getting?  Or are we about to find out that Natalya can still beat Alicia Fox and that she's still going to be dealing with LayCool with very little hope of beating them?

Outcome

Natalya wins and continues to stay in third place in terms of the WWE Diva's pecking order.

Michelle McCool putting Natalya into the sharpshooter was actually a cool moment in terms of giving her more heel heat.  Seeing Natalya reverse the hold was just as cool, though I was hoping that Layla would reenact the Montreal Screw Job and pretend like Natalya had tapped out, calling for the bell, raising McCool's arm in "victory".

So CM Punk gets traded from Smackdown to RAW, and he goes from having at least five minutes of mic time every week, and now he's relegated to whispering strategy in The Miz's ear and having a small recap of him injuring Evan Bourne last week. 

This reminds me somewhat of what happens when someone goes from TNA to WWE.  Ask Gail Kim where she got more opportunity to showcase her talents. 

I'm seeing WWE brag about how they wrestle abroad for the troops...but I believe I recently heard that they're not doing that this year.  Did anyone else hear that?  If that's true, I think they should stop bragging about something honorable that they decided to stop doing.

Match: Big Show vs The Miz

How great is it that the entire RAW roster and the entire Smackdown roster are at ringside to watch the main event?  They may not be involved in the pay per view match, but it's nice that they feel like they're being represented by their teams.

Wait, why would Teddy Long want to change the main event into a Battle Royal?  There's very little chance that The Miz was going to beat Big Show, so Teddy Long would've had bragging rights going into...Bragging Rights.

For the full version of this article including my thoughts on the main event, check it out at my website, www.GuysNation.com.