WWE Raw, 6/6/11: The Build to Capitol Punishment Continues

WWE Raw kicked off with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in the ring with the Tough Enough finalists. 

And your winner of season five is—drum roll please…Andy!  He’s welcomed to the WWE with a slap from McMahon and a Stone Cold Stunner! 

R-Truth then headed to the ring singing “When The Saints Go Marching In” while dressed ridiculously as a confederate soldier. 

He apologized for what he did last week thus keeping his title match at Capitol Punishment.  He then proceeded to secede from the WWE Universe. 

Miz came out and did what he does best: complain. 

Alex Riley came out and wanted to beat Miz down again, then like clockwork, John Cena came to the ring. 

At this point, I’m thinking that the General Manager was going to chime in and make Truth and Miz vs. Cena and Riley with Austin as the special referee. 

What do you know, the GM chimed in. 

But wait, McMahon told Michael Cole to “shut up” and made the match himself. 

This was a boring and predicable way to start out the show.  I liked how they announced the winner of Tough Enough on it, though.  It gave fans the chance who don’t watch Tough Enough to see their future hero or villain. 

Will he last, though?  Out of the seven past winners of the show, only one is actually still with WWE.  Miz is an exception to that as he was a runner-up. 

As for the blabbing in the ring, predictable.  Once Alex Riley came out I knew that the main event was going to be tag team match.

The first match of the night was Santino Marella vs. Michael McGillicutty.  Santino would win with the Cobra at just over four minutes.  This was a decent match and there was nice back-and-forth at times.

Santino doesn’t get the credit he deserves as a wrestler.  I suppose, though, that in the PG era there are no wrestlers, just entertainers.  So we may never be able to see Santino wrestle again, just “entertain” with the Cobra. 

And what’s with that move anyway?  It has got to be the worst finisher in the history of the business. 

Sure it’s fun to see, but would it really take out one half of the tag team champions, and the countless others Santino has taken out with it? 

McGillicutty is definitely the better of the two in terms of him and David Otunga so I was glad to see him in the singles match. 

The whole nexus thing is getting old, though.  Match rating: two-and-a-half out of five stars.

Right into another match as Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix took on the Bellas.  The faces would get the win when Phoenix hit the Glam Slam at two-and-a-half minutes. 

This was an okay match.  Not much back-and-forth.  It was your standard Divas tag match with the heels in control of a face until the hot tag. 

Phoenix deserves better than this.  She is the best WWE has right now and she should be carrying the whole division on her back.

Instead, they rely on Kelly, who is getting better with each match, but she’s not the wrestler Phoenix is. Match rating: two out of five stars.

The Trish-a-rooni?  Won’t mind seeing that!  Jack Swagger interrupted things and challenged Booker T to a match.  He accepted and we’ll get to see Booker’s return to a WWE ring tonight!

Time for a rematch from last week: CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio. 

Mysterio would get the win with a springboard DDT and a top-rope splash at eight-and-a-half minutes. 

This was definitely a step down from their match last week.  The match was slow at times with a lot of rest holds.  The pace usually quickened when Mysterio took control, though.  Despite being a step down from last week, it was still a good match.

CM Punk is the best overall talent they have and WWE is underutilizing him.  He should be facing Cena for the title at Capitol Punishment. 

It’s a shame that Punk may be leaving when his contract is up, which is probably why he’s stuck in feuds we’ve seen him in 100 times. 

As for Mysterio, he can still go.  His gimmick is as stale as Cena’s, though. 

The whole “ultimate underdog” thing is getting very, very old.  It’s time for a gimmick change. Match rating: three-and-a-half out of five stars.

Am I the only one that thinks these commercials for Capitol Punishment are incredibly stupid?  I can’t be the only one.

Backstage, Cena doesn’t trust Riley.  No surprise there.  A bit of a waste of a segment, but I guess Cena didn’t get enough airtime earlier.

Back in the ring, Alberto Del Rio came out and talked again of Big Show.  He wanted him to come out, but Ricardo Rodriguez came out for one of the most overused angles in wrestling.

Ricardo came out dressed as Show and the heels proceeded to make fun of him.  This is a tired angle.  It can work at times if done right, but I think this feels through big time.  I haven’t seen this angle be effective in years. 

TNA’s doing it right now with Mr. Anderson and Sting, but they changed things up a bit and it works. 

WWE’s creative team is getting sloppy I think. 

Del Rio is great on the mic.  He’s one of the best talkers in the business right now.  But that’s all he does: talk. 

Please WWE, put him in a match.  I want to see this man wrestle!

Next up was Kofi Kingston vs.—can it be? 

It is! Zack Ryder has a match on Raw!  It’s about time! 

Kofi would get the win, though, with the Trouble in Paradise at about two-and-a-half minutes.  The match was fast-paced at times and had some decent back-and-forth action. 

The camera cutting to Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero on commentary really annoyed me.  We can hear that they’re on commentary; we don’t need to see them!  Cutting away to them talking really took away from the match. 

I was really happy to see Ryder wrestling on Raw.  I was disappointed to see him lose, but his time will come. 

I can see him as US champion by the end of the year! Match rating: two-and-a-half out of five stars.

The fifth match of the night was Booker T vs. Jack Swagger. 

Booker would win by count-out at just over three minutes.  After the match, Evan Bourne threw Swagger back into the ring to get a Scissors Kick, then an Air Bourne.  Then we got a double spin-a-rooni! 

This was an okay match.  Booker has still got it, but he mostly just did his usual moves. 

I think Swagger’s talent is being wasted here on the A-show.  He was better off staying on SmackDown.  Match rating: two out of five stars.

Main event time as John Cena and Alex Riley took on R-Truth and Miz with Steve Austin as the referee. 

The faces would pick up the win when Riley hit Miz with the briefcase, got Stunned by Austin and AA’d by Cena at almost 11 minutes. 

Is anyone surprised that the faces won?  Didn’t think so. 

But then the GM chimed in and reversed the decision.  The heels won by DQ.

The GM then chimed in…again.  This time it was good news.  Next week on a three-hour Raw, Steve Austin will be the General Manager! 

Michael Cole then got Stunned for his troubles!

As for the match, it was you standard WWE tag match, but a good one.  It had a nice pace throughout and decent back-and-forth action.

I liked how the heels ran away from their respective opponents when forced to face them.  It really adds to the cowardly heel thing most of them present.

I have no interest in the Cena/Truth feud other than the fact that Truth is becoming a great heel, minus earlier.  The whole confederate uniform and singing thing was a bit of a step down. 

On the other hand, I am very interested in the Miz/Riley feud. 

They should have a great match at Capitol Punishment—as long as WWE doesn’t pull a Miz goes nuts and destroys Riley before the bell thus eliminating the purpose for it.  I can see it happening unfortunately.  Match rating: four out of five stars.

Raw was a step down from last week.  Overall, a disappointing show. 

All the in-ring and backstage segments were boring and/or predicable.  Most of the matches were short and the quality was killed by the time constraints. 

It’s very rare for Raw to have two good shows in a row, and the past two weeks are no exception. 

Hopefully next week’s three-hour, go-home show before the PPV will be something worth watching.  Show rating: three out of five stars.  Punk/Mysterio and the main event saved the show.