WWE Monday Night Raw 9/26/11: Grading the Night's Mic Performances

WWE's latest edition of Raw delivered an exciting main event, a Henry vs. Khali squash match and a surprise battle royal. 

The matches were well-paced and some provided previews for Hell in a Cell, but what about the promos?  Who ruled on the mic?

Some men captivated, while others had us wondering if we had time to grab some snacks.    

Here are my letter grades for the verbal performances by David Otunga, Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Triple H and John Cena. 

Triple H

The WWE COO set out to explain why he fired Miz and R-Truth.  Coming off as authoritative and professional, Triple H grabbed my attention early on. 

Triple H's persona is creeping ever closer to villainous boss. His revelation that he used Miz and R-Truth by putting them in last week’s main event was chilling. 

The ring soon grew crowded as Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler and Christian came out one by one to complain about their respective grievances.

Triple H was clearly the veteran among the group.  Even in that crowd, he managed to remain the most compelling figure by tossing in amusing goofiness to go with his stiff, angry boss routine.

Grade: A-

Dolph Ziggler

Angry about being clocked by Hugh Jackman, Ziggler was the first superstar to gripe to Triple H to open the show.  For someone with a fractured jaw, it sure didn't seem to be painful to talk.      

His lines sounded memorized.  His delivery began a bit stiff, but he did warm up as he went on.  In a crowded ring, I think Ziggler's mic work was the most disappointing. 

Grade: C+

Cody Rhodes

Unfortunately for Cody Rhodes, when he talked about the staples in his head courtesy of Randy Orton and the camera zoomed in, there wasn’t much to see.  As gruesome as his wound was, the visual on Raw was rather underwhelming. 

He had way too many overly dramatic pauses, and his attempt at being demented was only moderately successful. 

He and Triple H had a parent/child style interaction towards the end with the COO making his IC title defense more and more difficult every time he complained.  It was a compelling segment, but Triple H's presence dominated. 

Grade:B

Christian

Christian requesting "one more match" is so expected that it's become a self-referential joke. 

He was given the least amount of time of the three guys complaining and never got a chance to show why he's called "Captain Charisma."

His recent whining about title shots storyline isn't particularly interesting and he doesn’t seem all that into it.  Were his whining more over the top, it would be much funnier.    

Are the bookers holding Christian back or is he just giving less stellar performances than he's capable of?    

Grade: C+

David Otunga

Sporting a bow tie, David Otunga asked John Laurinaitis to get things under control. 

WWE seems to be pushing the Harvard graduate angle which doesn't have a whole lot of places to go. 

Because of how short it was, Otunga had little chance to do much of anything with the promo.

Luckily, he got another shot under the lights in a scene backstage where he tries to rally the troops to unite against Triple H. 

His lines were delivered well in terms of timing and enunciation, but Otunga was too subdued in his emotion.  I'm not saying he had to be angry, but a good actor can make the quietest moments powerful, something Otunga didn't quite achieve. 

Grade: B-

John Cena

The champ just keeps getting goofier.

His entrance now routinely begins with a grinning acknowledgement of the crowd and being spastically exuberant.  Is he just giddy from knowing that WWE with only allow him to be without the title for three to five minutes at a time?  

A promo that went from rambling to corny left the crowd unsure of how to react.  Trying to replace emotion with volume, Cena didn't do much to engage.

In trying to pump up his match in Hell of the Cell, he overused the word "hell" and never quite got his performance of the ground.

Grade: D-

Alberto Del Rio

The Mexican Aristocrat cut a quick promo after interfering with the Cena and Christian match.

Far worse that Cena in terms of overusing the word "hell", Del Rio gave us a rushed out-of-breath performance. 

Often, it's his less-than-stellar English skills that get in the way, but this night it was his script and lack of air time that held him back.  It was odd that they stuck him at the announcer table only to sit there in silence for a large majority of the match. 

Grade: D-