WWE RAW Results, Questions and Comments (November 8)

Enjoy watching Monday Night RAW?  The ratings tell us that whether you're married with children, a child yourself, an adult living in your mom's basement, a fraternity brother, taking time away from World Of Warcraft (or Starcraft) or some other subdivide of society, there's a strong chance that if you're watching television tonight, you might be watching the product that Vince McMahon and his family preside over—for better or worse! 

Whether you like tag team wrestling, choose to cheer for Nexus, believe the Undertaker was really buried alive or just like tuning in for the Diva's, it's Monday Night, and since you're reading this article, you likely know that Monday Night means RAW!

If this is your first time reading one of my articles, where the heck have you been?  For months now, I've been writing every Monday and Friday (or Tuesday and Saturday, time permitting) my somewhat-unique take on the two biggest wrestling shows of the week (on free television, anyway). 

If you like Jerry Seinfeld's humor...great.  So do I, and while I'm not purposefully TRYING to emulate that, I have been told that my articles come across with a similar edge to his stand-up routine.  Bleacher Report goes so far as to call it SATIRE.  Whatever.  I give the results along with my analysis—which includes some comments and some questions.  Give it a try, won't you? 

And if you'd be so kind, leave comments on the GuysNation.com version of this article and help me keep my kid in daycare...which is ungodly expensive (while being one of the least expensive options in the area).

What do we have to look forward to tonight?

John Morrison and Sheamus are now officially feuding.  A week ago (I was going to mention however many hours that is, but I don't feel like figuring out what 24 x 7 is...even though I know it's somewhere around 170), it was a LIKELY feud, but it wasn't official yet.  Morrison helping Santino not get killed two weeks (~325 hours ago)?  Decent setup.  Morrison kicking Sheamus in the gut last week during RAW?  NOW he's officially got Sheamus' attention.

We still have heard precious little about the traditional Survivor Series matches.  I think part of that was due to an angle which got derailed with CM Punk's injury, but they could still do SOMETHING.  What of Punk's injury?  Are they just going to keep him off television and not reference the fact that two weeks ago he was on commentary during a match featuring Daniel Bryan (Danielson)? 

He mentioned recruiting; maybe he could be the manager for a team?  There's still plenty which can be done with him despite his injury—and whatever story was building with Bryan and Punk could still be worked on, assuming WWE Creative isn't too lazy.

And what of the tensions between Miz and Rey Mysterio which were sounding like they might start up?  Two weeks ago, The Miz welcomed Mysterio to show up on RAW, and yet, it was The Big Show who made a giant appearance, and we didn't hear word one about Rey last week (which I hear was due to an ear infection).  Is that going to be another Traditional Survivor Series match?  Might that be the ONLY five-on-five elimination?

How sad is it that two of the pay-per-views of the last four months have involved big elimination-style matches, and now that we're getting close to Survivor Series, with two RAW episodes left, there's not ANY significant word about it?

Ezekiel Jackson dominated Long Island Ice Z last week.  After disposing of Zach Ryder, who's next for Zeke?  Will he be part of one of the Survivor Series teams?

David Otunga and four other members of Nexus invaded Smackdown three days ago without Cena or Barrett calling the shots.  It's a pretty safe bet we're going to be hearing more about that.  Anyone want to bet that Wade Barrett's not happy about it?  I'd almost predict a Cena/Otunga match tonight.

Now that Natalya Neidhardt is officially the contender to fight a member of LayCool at Survivor Series for the Diva's championship, is WWE going to continue to spin that angle the same way it went last month...and the month before...and the month before that...and the month before that?

Speaking of spinning things around in circles, will we get ANY more traction on the probable break-up of the Hart Dynasty?  If WWE Creative were, you know, CREATIVE, they could start forming five-on-five teams and have Tyson Kidd go to one team while David Hart Smith went to another and have the break-up not officially happen until AFTER Survivor Series. 

That is, they can only do that if they're going to keep it fresh and dynamic and actually do some things to play up the friction, besides the way they've been doing in the past few weeks—having them get angry with one another due to miscommunication in a tag team match.

RAW's about to start.  I'll be doing my best to keep the GuysNation.com version of this article as close to "up to date" as possible with RAW as it airs live.  Keep checking the page to see updates as they come!

9:00 pm Eastern Time, let's get down to business!!

RAW is apparently stemming from Manchester, England tonight, which means we're probably in store for a pro-Barrett crowd.  Bizzaro world?  Don't be too surprised.

We start off with John Cena in the ring, and supposedly, he's representing Nexus.  Crowd isn't quite split on the issue, and John's getting a fair amount of hate.  That's to be expected.

The script John Cena is reading from a scroll...does anyone else think that's just slightly less noticeable than the script Michael Cole reads from on the Anonymous GM's laptop?

Wade Barrett gets a mixed reaction, proving that the UK is a little better at selling storylines than Canadian wrestling fans?  Nice.

Giving us the first Smackdown Rebound in MONTHS, Wade Barrett isn't happy about David Otunga taking Nexus to Smackdown, and he yells at him for not being successful in his efforts on the blue show.

Random note:  does anyone else think that Husky Harris looks like a bloated Brian Pillman?

Random note No. 2:  as Wade Barrett forces us to look back at how John Cena performed as referee 170 hours ago, did anyone else note that it was "Rear View" Josh Matthews narrating as we "looked back?"

Did anyone else laugh when John Cena gave a brief history of his gimmick in response to Wade Barrett's request for John to "explain [him]self?"  It went a little something like this:  "It all started as a joke, I rapped by accident on a Smackdown Thanksgiving Day episode, and before I know it my hat's turned backwards, wearing a chain around my neck, waving my hand in front of my face making me invisible."

After a little more back-and-forth with Wade Barrett trying unsuccessfully to get John to "practice" announcing him as the new World Champion, Randy Orton shows up and talks some trash.

We get the first Anonymous GM email of the night, and we get some stipulations for the Survivor Series title match.  First of all, it has to be decided by pinfall or submission, which to some degree makes it a No DQ, No Count Out match...which means anything goes.  ANYTHING?  Not exactly.  The GM also banned Nexus from ringside at Survivor Series.

Also, tonight we get a five-on-five match featuring five of the members of Nexus against five individuals chosen on a team for Randy Orton.  What's more?  John Cena is the special guest referee.

For reasons which don't concern me, John not only shoves over the lectern in the ring, but he also gets in David Otunga's face and shoves him over as well.  Does anyone else think that Otunga is getting punked on his way out?

Match - Manchester United Divas (Eve Torres & Bella Twins) vs. Liverpool Divas (Maryse, Tamina & Alicia Fox)

Did anyone just hear one of the announcers mention that this match involves "Six Divas, One Cup"?  I'm getting terrible YouTube flashbacks.  If you don't understand that reference, consider yourself lucky and don't start trying to Google that.

Random note No. 3:  Did anyone else just see the Old School RAW graphic on the screen?  That old WWF logo gives me a good nostalgia moment...which is now replaced nicely with a Maryse cat fight moment.  Followed nicely by the Bella Twins bouncing on the ring apron.

Is anyone else impressed with how that Bella Twin was going crazy in the ring, especially with those dropkicks?  Quite impressive.

Outcome - Manchester Divas get the win as one of the Bella Twins makes the blind switch, giving them the element of surprise on Alicia Fox, who doesn't realize that the Diva she's about to try to suplex isn't actually in bad shape, and so the Bella Twin gets the win with the small package.

Wow, so am I prophetic or what?  Apparently David Otunga's not going to be part of tonight's five-on-five team warfare, and just as I predicted, Otunga will be fighting John Cena tonight.  Could this be Otunga's last night as a member of Nexus?

Did anyone else cringe when they heard the Hart Dynasty theme song start up, given the possibility for RAW to actually start with two straight Diva's matches?

So, I guess we're not going to be getting another Diva's match right now, but we are apparently getting another respin of the Hart Dynasty angle.  Let's see just how lacking in creativity they are this time.

Match - Hart Dynasty vs. The Usos

Forgive me if I don't write much during this match.  Doesn't it seem like we've seen this happen over and over again?  There's only so much of this I can take.  At some point, shouldn't the WWE Creative folks let things progress?  There are only so many times I can see the Hart Dynasty get mad at one another for miscommunication.

The announcers are selling the idea that the Hart Dynasty aren't going to be splitting up...and we also get word that Michael Cole (who is easily playing the "Heel Announcer" role) supports Tyson Kidd and can't stand DH Smith...if Cole is going to be a fan of either member of the Hart Dynasty (and in turn, make fun of the other member), shouldn't he try to hype up DH Smith, the more likely of the duo to be the heel?  Smith has less personality (from what I've seen), and he could really benefit from someone else trying to sell him.

Outcome - The Usos get the victory as one of the Usos does a splash off the top rope onto DH Smith.  So how are they going to spin this outcome to put more friction between Tyson Kidd & DH Smith?

Tea Time with Santino?  Sheamus is going to be joining Santino for some TEA?  Does anyone else agree that has Segment of the Year Candidate written ALL over it?

So three days after following him into battle on Smackdown and watching him get pinned in the main event of the blue show, the lower four members of Nexus are starting to ostracize David Otunga?  Looks like this is almost certainly his last night in the group.  If he's still on the team in seven days, I'd be shocked.

Whoa, did anyone else notice that Dusty Rhodes and Cody Rhodes were groomsmen for Goldust on NXT?  I waited all this time to see WWE make that association, and they inexplicably just slap it on a show which isn't even televised?  Wow...

Did anyone else laugh when Michael Cole talked about how guys shouldn't date women half their age?  He can only say that tonight because of the absence of Jerry Lawler from the announce table.

Match - Ted DiBiase vs Goldust

If DiBiase wants that Million Dollar Belt back, why not just have Maryse go take it from the time keeper's table during the match?

Ha!  Did anyone else notice that cheap shot directly at The King by Michael Cole, with the direct reference to Goldust's marital issues.

Well, it looks like Maryse was on the same page as I am about just TAKING the Million Dollar Belt back, and we get more in the Aksana/Goldust angle as Aksana shows up and steals the belt from Maryse.

Outcome - in the confusion of Aksana showing up, Goldust pins Ted DiBiase to steal a win.

Match - John Cena vs. David Otunga

What are the odds that David Otunga is on the outs with Nexus because his nexus-hooded sweatshirt jacket has glitter all over it?

Why did Otunga start the match by RUNNING up the ramp?  Was he really going to try to escape?  If he goes backstage, doesn't he realize that the likely outcome of that move would be getting his ass kicked by five members of Nexus?

On second thought, doesn't he have something to hold over Nexus' head—being that he's willing to tell the world why they're attacking The Undertaker?

Is John Cena actually altering his Twitter output based on this storyline like the announcers mentioned?

While you consider going to Twitter to check it out, you should also consider following GuysNation on Twitter (@GuysNation).

Outcome - John Cena basically dominates after Otunga misses a few moves, and Cena wins with the STF, getting a submission out of Otunga.

For my thoughts on the last 40 minutes of RAW, including the main event, an analysis of the four guys picked for Randy Orton's team in the main event and my favorite pictures of the evening, read the full version of this article over at my site: www.GuysNation.com!