Raw Results

WWE Raw comes to us live from Long Island. Tonight, the show will focus on the fall out from last night's pay per view event. Expect former General Manager John Laurinaitis to address his job loss. Also tonight, Grammy Award winner Cyndi Lauper will be a special guest host. Here are the results and hits and misses from the June 18th WWE Raw event.

Miss - Mick Foley

Mick Foley comes out and explains that he will be hosting both WWE Raw and Smackdown this week. Must be a big night because he's not wearing his usual sweatpants. Foley made a tag match between Kane and Daniel Bryan against Sheamus and CM Punk. Foley then brings out former GM John Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis tells the fans how rude they are, and elects to give his farewell address later. As Laurinaitis evacuates the ring, Sheamus's music blares and he heads to the ring. The two share a stare, like Aladdin and Jasmin. The segment leads into the tag team bout. As for the element itself, I suppose we are lucky it was only ten minutes. Even though it was brief, there was nothing enlivening about it. Nothing that those two presented made me want to stay tuned. Therefore, it was a miss.

Miss - CM Punk and Sheamus vs. Kane and Daniel Bryan

The fans seem to be solidly behind Bryan, as he gets taken down with a headlock by Sheamus. He follows up with a decimating back breaker, and tags Punk. The announcers mention CM Punk has been the champion for 211 days. Crazy to think that Bruno Sammartino once held the title for seven years, and now they boast about a 211 day reign. Punk ducks a Kane clothesline and does a suicide dive onto Bryan. Kane cuts down Punk just as we go to commercial. Hot tag to Sheamus, who delivers a flying shoulder tackle to Kane. He follows it up with a power slam. Kane is able to get back to his feet and dump Sheamus over the top, where we see Bryan charge with a running dropkick on the outside. This match is following the same psychology as many tag matches in the last few months. It's very predictable. Bryan and Kane take turns working over Sheamus. Much like Kane's brother, the crowd is dead. Sheamus sidesteps Bryan, and we go into our second hot tag. AJ prances to the ring wearing a Kane mask. Cue the Benny Hill music. Kane leaves Bryan alone, allowing Punk to land a GTS and Sheamus to hit a Brough Kick. The match was average, kind of what you would envision from these four. But I am going to give it a miss because it really hasn't been any dissimilar from the bouts I've witnessed from them over the last month. I just feel like I'm viewing that scene from Speed, when Keanu Reeves rigs the camera in the bus to repeat over and over again.

Hit - Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger

Sick of the bickering between Swagger and Ziggler, Vickie Guerrero makes her two clients clash with one another. I'd love to see a divorce lawyer do this. Maybe John Cena will consider this. Anyway, the crowd starts a "lets go Ziggler" chant. Swagger does three push-ups, which is two more than what indy wrestlers can do. Swagger went for a go behind and Ziggler stole a headlock. That was pretty neat. They settle into some heat early, with Swagger working over Ziggler's knee. Ziggler is able to counter an ankle lock, and manages to hit the Zig Zag. Dolph gets the win, and Vickie and Dolph Vickie kiss to end the match. Match was shorter than I imagined, but favorable nonetheless.

Miss - Paul Heyman Promo

Brock Lesnar's music screams across the arena, and out comes Lesnar looking a foot shorter, balding, and sporting a thick New York accent. Oh, it's Paul Heyman and he's here to address Triple H's challenge from No Way Out. Heyman answers Triple H's challenge by emphatically stating "no." Of course, Triple H isn't going to take that laying down. Triple H saunters to the ring in his fine business suit. It takes two seconds before Triple H drops a bingo hall reference. The two trade quasi-shoot remarks. I feel like it's 2001 all over again, except without the edginess and attitude. Paul Heyman reminds me of the Paul Giamatti character in the movie Big Fat Liar. I hope Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes do a run-in and throw blue paint on them. Finally, Triple H decks Heyman and says he'll see Lesnar at Summerslam. That was a rough segment. Consider that Heyman is from Long Island, and even the large smart mark crowd weren't reacting to the promo.
Miss - Alberto Del Rio vs. Santino Marella

Alberto Del Rio was taken out of the No Way Out title match because of a concussion, yet one night later, and he's completely fine to wrestle? Weak. Speaking of weak, here comes Santino Marella. His comedy gimmick is really starting to wear thin and I think it makes a impotent U.S. Champion. Del Rio starts off feverishly and immediately begins kicking Santino. Santino tries to nab his green cobra sock, but Alberto Del Rio acquires the cross armbreaker. Del Rio makes rapid work of the champion. Not much to say here. I think this was supposed to make Del Rio look powerful, but Santino is always losing. I wasn't impressed.

Hit - Cyndi Lauper Segment

Layla introduces Wendi Richter and Cyndi Lauper. The fans go mild. Too bad, this is kind of cool, at least for longtime wrestling fans. The pair come out to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Heath Slater interrupts Richter's promo. Lauper asks Slater "who are you?" That may have been a legit question, considering Lauper was last in the ring 27 years ago. As Slater sings, the familiar sound of bagpipes echoes around the arena. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper enters the arena. Crowd chants "Roddy!" Piper produces a gold record, and gives it to Lauper. Slater interrupts again, and Cyndi Lauper smashes the gold record over his head. The segment was long but it was a fun little trip into wrestling's past. Based entirely on nostalgia, it was a hit.

Miss - Primetime Players vs. Primo and Epico

The new number one contenders for the tag team titles, the Primetime Players, start the match by punching and kicking Epico. After a minute of action, Primo is tagged in and hits a flying back elbow. Primo misses a dropkick, but is still able to hit a Back stabber maneuver. The Primetime Players bail on the match, resulting in a count out defeat. That was pointless.

Miss - Big Show and David Otunga vs. John Cena

Big Show cuts a promo and says he doesn't see any reason to compete tonight. The match turns into Cena versus Otunga and Johnny Ace. Cena gets the advantage in the beginning, but Otunga eventually takes over. We saw this match a couple weeks ago on WWE Raw. At least the crowd is awake and chanting. Of course, they are chanting against John Cena. The former GM gets tagged in and stomps on the prone Cena. Otunga eventually leaves Johnny, and Cena beats him down with three Attitude Adjustments. Johnny taps to the STF.

Overall, I felt this WWE Raw was a complete miss. Other than the Ziggler versus Swagger match, which was short, and the Cyndi Lauper segment, there wasn't anything interesting on the show. It just dragged. This is not a good piece of news heading into the three hour WWE Raw concept. Tonight proved to be a waste of time. Hopefully they can recover next week.

TheCelticGarbutt wrote:Anyone think that maybe the GM issue may come into the HHH/Lesnar fued.

Trips taking control back, Heyman manipulating for full of control in return for a match wth his "client" at Summerslam with the legal charges being dropped. Following on from the HHH cant be a wrestler and GM and COO of WWE all at the same time angle we had in the spring.

Theyve always liked to portray Heyman as someone who would sell his sole for power, could be an extension of his character. Although Id like to think itll be Regal, had the job in NXT and from this week that goes to Dusty Rhodes so maybe a new role for Sir Regal!!