Night of Champions Fallout - September 20, 2010

Tonight is the night! The beginning of an era. The dawn of a new tradition! That's right, it's the start of my RAW recap blog. However, rather than recap the show blow for blow or promo for promo, I'm just going to offer some high level thoughts, perspective and insight into the booking, storylines, and general direction of the show. This way I can hopefully spur up some debate, commentary, and thoughts on the direction of the WWE's flagship show and who knows what else! So without further ado:


I liked the opening segment tonight between Randy Orton and Sheamus. Orton was built as the clear cut favorite going into the Pay Per View so I expect we'll see a pretty long run from Orton after this title win. Makes total sense to start the show. Even though I'm not a fan of the stretch of gimmick Pay Per View's coming up, I'm glad we're seeing this match between Orton and Sheamus at Hell in a Cell built up right away.

A couple thoughts on the tag match between Santino/Kozlov and Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre. I still can't get into either Rhodes or McIntyre. Both of them bore me to tears and have no personality. Speaking of no personality, why would you put the Hart Dynasty on commentary? Seriously. Put a stick next to King and Cole, and put a Hart Dynasty t-shirt on it, and you've got about the same thing as you do with Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith there.

Apparently Chris Jericho isn't completely done with the WWE yet seeing as he is wrestling John Morrison tonight. Part of me wonders if he has already signed a new deal and is just taking time off to tour with Fozzy.

I can't believe I am saying this - but John Morrison has impressed me lately. I think the WWE has changed how they are pushing him a little bit. Instead of booking him as a guy that is a future centerpiece of the company (in the mold of say Shawn Michaels), they seem to be focusing on his athleticism and "movez set". I think that's the way to go. He's managed to get over with the fans as a babyface and has found some degree of charisma ala Rob Van Dam. So I say push him like RVD and take advantage of his strengths, hide his weaknesses, and hopefully you get an upper mid-carder out of him.

I can't help but feel Edge really has no purpose on RAW. He kind of floats through the upper mid-card with no feuds. I mean would anyone even notice if Edge was fired tomorrow at this point? I like Edge and even I think that. I hope that this mini-feud he has with the GM leads to him heading back over to Smackdown. He's a better fit there, and they need more star power right now.

The Miz is just awesome. There's nothing else to say about his segment tonight. He's going to be a multi-time world champ. I'd like to see him and Daniel Bryan have a verbal confrontation though sometime soon. I think Bryan's underrated on the mic, and he could use this as an opportunity to get some more crowd support with the non-internet fans.

I'm sad Melina lost the Women's Championship to Michelle McCool. I don't really think team LayCool has much left in the tank, and quite frankly they're a cheap rip off of TNA's Beautiful People (sorry WWE, LayCool is NOT better than The Beautiful People).

Loving the fact that Chris Jericho FINALLY has his own DVD. I will be picking that up for sure. Also - I wonder if next week is going to be Jericho's last match on TV for a while. After the exchange he had with Orton, I wonder if we could see an Orton head punt to Jericho next week to take him out of action for a while.

RTruth and Eve vs. Maryse and Ted DiBiase confuses me. I don't get this feud. Maryse is being wasted by not having her regularly compete in the women's division. I'm interested to see what comes of the Titantron message that aired after the match tonight. Is someone in love with Maryse, or DiBiase? Either storyline will make things interesting. By the way, I'm mixed on Eve, but holy crap can she dance!

A couple thoughts on the main event tonight. It seems like the WWE is downplaying Nexus and possibly going to phase the group out over the next few weeks. They just haven't been a major part of the show the last few weeks after dominating RAW for most of the summer. I'd hate to see this group disband already, but there is some good to come out of it. Now, if Cena loses at Hell in a Cell (and I don't think it's a forgone conclusion he will win) Nexus gets new life. If he loses, Nexus is done. I really hope that Barrett wins this match if only because I think the Nexus storyline still has life in it. Regardless, Wade Barrett vs. John Cena should be a great match at Hell in a Cell. I think that Cena will give Barrett the rub he needs to become a mega star. By the way, whatever happened to the Darren Young cameo we had a couple of weeks back?


Overall a solid RAW tonight coming out of the Pay Per View. The show had good energy tonight and crowd was hot, so that helped. A lot got done, but it pretty much had to seeing as they only have two shows to build up their Pay Per View. I have to admit, I think I am going to get the Hell in a Cell Pay Per View. If only for the Cena/Barrett match. This match has more heat behind it than pretty much anything else right now. Plus, like I said before, I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that Cena wins. I know there's been rumors that Nexus was going to be finishing up in October, so this would be around the time to book a match like this, but I'm still not sold on the end of this group.

So good show though. I'm going to be interested to see how they book Cena next week going into the Pay Per View. Nexus and Cena came away looking pretty strong tonight. I think we might see whoever walks away from RAW next week with the upper hand in this feud leaving Hell in a Cell the victor. It should be a fun ride, and it gives us all something to look forward to next week.