WWE "Viva La Mexico!" Raw, Oct. 17: The Good, the Bad and the Meh

Raw was historic in a few ways.  First being filmed in Mexico City, Mexico, for the first time.  The second probably being one of the few times Michael Cole was tolerable.  As always, hit up Kaleb Kelchner's live blog for a recap.

After a rather abysmal effort last week that left a lot of fans deflated (and subsequently changing the channel), they needed to see a good effort.  With Vengeance less than a week away, they also needed to make the PPV sell as well.  Shall we see how they did?

The Good

+ Six Man Tag.  The WWE needs to be careful in using these too much, as it seems like we have one every week.  That said, this was solid effort by all parties concerned, and was a good way to emphasize the feuds they needed to.  Pity to see Morrison take the pin, but with him likely on the way out, what can you do?  Fairly formulaic, but not without it's moments.  Great demonstration by Henry before hitting the World's Strongest Slam.

+ Ryder/Swagger & Ryan/Ziggler.  More or less the same segment.  Neither match was really long enough to tell any sort of story, other than Ryder being a underdog face and Ryan absolutely dismantling Ziggler.  Overall, however, the combination of the two was alright.  It was nice to hear Notista actually speak.  I wonder if Swagger is going to replace Slater as "Jobber to the Stars".

+ Ziggler Promo.  I guess the 'E picked up on the type of stuff he was cutting on Ryder's YouTube show.  This was a great effort by the US Champion.  Some classic heal stuff, but it was slightly surreal to hear my home country used to garner heel heat.  He's beginning to hit his stride on the stick.  Swagger or Vicki didn't really stand out here.  This was all about Dolph. 

+ Punk/Miz.  Good TV match with some time, and enough to tell a story.  Miz was strong in this match, and Punk didn't go into 'Cena Mode" to win.  Trips coming out was solid enough to add some storyline, and some possibility to segue Triple H to Lauri after Vengeance in some form.  Not without issues, however.  I'll cover this later.

+ Main Event.  More or less to sell the main event at Vengeance, and both Cena and Del Rio did alright here.  Basically a rehash of their match in Calgary on SmackDown with Hart and Ricardo.  Overall, however, some issues persisted which I'll get to. Good match though with Cole taking an Attitude Adjustment to send the crowd home happy.

+ Crowd.  Great crowd tonight that reacted as they needed to.  Wish we could see more of that type on TV.

The Meh

~ Opening segment.  You know, I guess I gold spoiled with the good opening segments over the past few months, and their use to plot hook the show or establish a particular theme for the evening.  JR's presence helped carry this, and Lauri got some solid heat.  But it came across as awkward with the "Bro Hug" and simply due to Lauri's black hole of a personality. 

~ Michael Cole.  He wasn't completely insane tonight, which helped out a lot.  I still think he needs to take lessons from Striker and Korpela.  Their presence on Superstars is a highlight of the show, not a detriment.

~ PPV sell.  They actually did alright here, but nothing memorable.  The card is shaping up nicely, aside from the SmackDown main event and Diva's Title match.  The counting segment by Cena was nicely done though.

The Bad

- Divas Segment.  A simple going through the motions by the gals.  More or less a throw away segment.  Eve was never established a threat to the Beth directly anyway, so their match at Vengeance will be filler, nothing more. If Eve pins Beth, I'm writing the Divas off entirely.  The 'E needs to take some lessons from Shimmer.

- Match stoppage.  Punk and Miz could have been a great match, but the stoppage of the match killed whatever momentum they had.  For the record, this was one of my major beefs with the show last week with two separate stoppages.  WWE, no matter how you hide it, you are, at your heart, a wrestling company.  Start acting like it.  Stoppages once in a while, aside from commercial breaks, are OK because they can enhance a particular angle, but this is three times in two weeks. 

- Awesome Truth.  Despite what I noted above, the duo simply don't feel like a threat, collectively, to Triple H and Punk.  At this point, unless Trips turns heel, I sincerely doubt the match can end in any believable way other than a face victory, or Punk taking a job.  Catch is Punk can't lose here simply because he's lost twice on consecutive PPVs.

- Del Rio's character.  Is he a badass or is he a coward?  Make up your minds WWE and stick to it.  The simple lack of consistency is killing him.  He beat Sheamus last week in a good performance, then he runs on Cena.  Seriously? Christian has more credibility of character, and that's just sad. And he's supposed to be Raw's top heel? 

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Lauri has the supernatural ability to suck the heat from anything, even a oven set on broil.

JR had the perfect "if looks could kill" face.

Nice to see the cheese twins back on TV.

It was awesome to hear a sell out crowd chant "A-hole!".  I missed that stuff. 

So if the "Last Hit" theorem holds truth (Last person to make contact on their PPV opponent takes the loss), then Awesome Truth and Cena will both lose. 

So if there are immigration problems with Triple H, how in the hell did he get IN the country in the first place?  Did he hop the border at Brownsville, Texas?

I cannot understate how much the match stoppage irritated me.  Miz and Punk were putting on a hell of a show for a simple TV mid-show match.

Overall Grade: C+

Overall, an uptick from last week's show, which required about as much effort as taking out the garbage to accomplish.  That said, the show wasn't overly bad, but Lauri is such a hard heel to get into, and the match stoppage simply killed whatever interest I had in the remainder of the show.

With Vengeance next week, the PPV sell was in full effect, so it gave the show an overly broad motivation, but even then, it was just going through the motions.   While not as bad as last week's show, I was hoping for a greater recovery effort.