Greetings Pwrestlingnews readers and welcome to this weeks Raw Recap! I’m Sunny K and I’ll be providing weekly coverage of WWE Raw and Smackdown. I’ll also throw in my thoughts, match analyses and anything else that I feel like saying about the show along the way. Here’s how it’ll work – I’ll cover non-wrestling/promo segments by basically reiterating, word for word, what is being said. Of course, I may throw in some fitting sarcastic quirks and comments as well. It’s pretty much to impossible to “rate” these segments so a star rating can’t really be assigned to them. You should be able to tell if they’re worth your time by catching my tone and seeing what I have to say about them. Of course, opinions do differ so if I’m doing play by play of a Tyson Kidd interview and I tell you that it sucks, you may think otherwise. Although it’s Tyson Kidd with a microphone, how good could that possibly be? Matches will be timed and given a star rating. Again, if I give a match a full five stars that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to agree with me. Let’s exemplify, shall we. Jon Heidenreich returns to take on Vladmir Kozlov. They wrestle a 10 minute shitfest of a clusterfuck save for a decent finish. I go ahead and give the match ¼*. However, upon viewing it yourself, you actually think it’s quite decent and disagree with the harsh rating. What I’m saying is just don’t be too torn up about it, ok? Leave a comment letting me know how much of a dick I am for giving a Jon Heidenreich match under four stars, if that helps. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, without further ado let’s get started.
Reality Check
Saying that last week’s show was huge is an understatement. Mr. Money in the bank, The Miz, finally ended up cashing in his contract for a WWE Championship match immediately after Randy Orton defeated Nexus leader Wade Barrett. Orton, who suffered a brutal beatdown at the hands of The Nexus just moments prior to entering the ring for his match against Barrett, lost to The Miz. Clean. So the Miz is the Champion. Let that sink in for a second. I’ll say it again. The Miz is the WWE Champion. I, for one am all for putting the belt on him. He’s relatively young, rapidly improving and one of the best stickmen in WWE today. Of course, there are people who are going to disagree with me. That’s what the comments box is for. Unleash your rage. Vent. Vent all you want, but the reality is that The Miz is THE guy on Raw at the moment. Last week was also the final appearance of John Cena as he was “fired”. Cena “went out” on a high note and delivered a really heartfelt promo that I personally enjoyed. Of course, with all the rumors of “Juan Cena, John’s Mexican cousin” all but confirmed, we should all be expecting to see “Juan” tonight. Finally, King of the Ring qualifier matches were scattered about the show last week. This week is the King of the Ring tournament in Philadelphia. My pick? Sheamus. Without a doubt. After a clean loss to John Morrison at Survivor Series, Sheamus desperately needs a big win to propel him right back to the top. I think winning the KOTR crown and beating JoMo along the way would do just that. Alberto Del Rio is another guy who I think could take the crown tonight. Management seems to be really high up on the guy right now, and for good reason. He’s great. King Morrison has a nice ring to it. King Kofi Kingston does not. Too many “king’s”. Then there’s the other guys – Big Zeke, McIntyre, Rhodes and Bryan. Bryan doesn’t need to win it. It’s too early for Jackson. McIntyre…maybe? He’s been in the doghouse so long that I forgot he even existed. As for Rhodes, he needs to start wearing some knee pads before he can even think of rocking a crown.
An excellent video package highlighting the shocking events of last week is shown.
Raw is live from Philadelphia. Lawler mentions the first KOTR tournament was in 1985. I thought it was in 1993. Stop revising history, WWE. Alex Riley comes out and says that The Miz is the WWE Champion and he is excited and honored to be a part of one of the most groundbreaking moments in the history of entertainment. He compares The Miz winning the championship to Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Cole starts clapping and sounds like he’s loving this. Riley says that he plans on throwing The Miz a huge celebration while Punk throws some clever DUI-related shots.
First Round KOTR Match
Alberto Del Rio vs Daniel Bryan
The commentators hype the tournament during ADR’s entrance. Punk says he stole Vince’s toupee and Cole points out that Punk is dressed accordingly this week. Meaning he’s actually wearing pants. The match starts as ADR backs Bryan into the corner and kicks him in the ribs at the start. Big “Daniel Bryan” chant starts up but Del Rio silences the crowd as he puts Bryan in a side headlock. Del Rio runs the ropes and gets dropkicked by Bryan. Bryan goes for a quick cover but gets a one count. Del Rio gets up and plants Bryan with a weak spinebuster and Bryan grabs ADR’s arm on the way down and attempts an early Lebell lock. Del Rio bails to the outside as they go to commercial.
Back from commercial now as Del Rio has Daniel Bryan in a side headlock. They show Del Rio hitting Bryan with a kick to the head during the break. Del Rio drives a couple of knees into Bryan’s shoulder, goes for a cover and gets a two count. Back to the chinlock. Del Rio is scraping Bryan’s face now. What a heel. It’s the little things like this that make a good heel. Bryan fights out of the chinlock with elbows but gets scooped up and slammed to the mat. Del Rio goes for a vader bomb and misses. Daniel Bryan rolls Del Rio up and gets a two count. Both men up now and Bryan goes for a crucifix pin and gets another two count. ADR kicks Bryan in the head but Bryan gets a few elbows in of his own. Del Rio reverses a whip into the cornerbut Bryan flips off the turnbuckle and lands on his feet. They exchange waistlocks and Bryan ends up behind Del Rio. He hits a german suplex into a pin. Alberto kicks out at two. Bryan whips Del Rio into the ropes and ducks but Del Rio kicks him in the face. Alberto bounces off the ropes and gets kicked right back. Bryan hits a running dropkick and covers for a long two count. Del Rio’s on his knees now and eating a lot of kicks. Bryan runs the ropes and goes for a clothesline but it’s reversed into a beautiful german suplex pin by ADR. Another two count ADR goes for a dropkick but lands on the outside. Bryan follows him out with a dive through the ropes. That was awesome. Bryan throws Del Rio back in and goes up top. Bryan misses a missile dropkick. Bryan is taking his time getting up now. Del Rio notices that Bryan is hurt and locks in the floatover. Bryan, hurt shoulder and all, immediately taps out. ADR wins!
Analysis: **3/4 It went about 9 minutes but it was solid all the way through. Bryan busted out the awesome dive through the ropes once again. The kid is crazy. He does it in every match! If they had been given around 15 minutes this match would’ve likely been incredible.
They show some past KOTR winners and point out that many of them kick-started their careers by winning the tournament.
R-Truth comes out and tells the WWE Universe what’s up. He brings up John Cena being fired last week. He says that he doesn’t care what anybody says, John Cena is still his friend and John went out like a champ. He says, truth be told, when all this started he tried to get John to quit on his own terms. He ended up losing what he cherished the most – the WWE Universe. He says that Nexus may have won the battle, but the war hasn’t even started yet. He issues an open challenge to any member of The Nexus to take him on. Grisham is with Michael McGillicutty backstage. McGillicutty says that he’s about to show R-Truth what happens when you issue an open challenge to anyone from the Nexus. As he starts walking to the ring though, McGillicutty is seen being attacked backstage by someone wearing purple. Hmmm…who could that be?
We come back from commercial break as the commentator speculate as to who beat the shit out of Michael McGillicutty backstage. I refuse to spell out his name one more time during this recap. It’s just too much work.
First Round KOTR Match
“Dashing” Cody Rhodes vs. John Morrison
It’s the battle of the sexy boys. Nevermind, forget that I said that. Cole talks about Cody shaving his legs during his entrance. Okay, onto the match now. They lockup to start and Morrison gets Rhodes in a headlock. Morrison runs the ropes and hits a shoulderblock. He goes for a punch but Cody protects his face. Rhodes takes control and backs Morrison into the corner and tries to choke him. He runs into the turnbuckle to nail Morrison but misses. Morrison hits Rhodes in the face and Cody throws a fit and goes outside. They’re both back in now. Rhodes takes Morrison down with a clothesline and whips him hard into the turnbuckle. A cover by Rhodes gets two. “Birthday Suit” Cody Rhodes remains in control with a knee to the gut. Another cover gets two. He locks Morrison in a submission working JoMo’s neck. Morrison eventually fights out with punches and hits a few clotheslines and a heel kick. He goes for a cover but Rhodes kicks out. Rhodes gets a quick roll up but gets two. Morrison stays in control as he tries to whip Rhodes into the turnbuckle but gets elbowed. Rhodes jumps on the second rope in hopes of hitting the beautiful disaster but Morrison is too quick as he too, hits the second rope, throws out a kick that CM Punk dubbed “the flying chuck” and nails it. He follows it up with a running knee strike, which is the same move he beat Sheamus with at Survivor Series. Morrison pins him for three.
Analysis: *1/2 Match was just a shade under four minutes. Absolutely nothing to write home about here. The finish was nice, but there wasn’t much else. Morrison advances.
First Round KOTR Match
Drew McIntyre vs. Ezekiel Jackson
They cut out the beginning (and best part) of Drew’s music. Sucks for him. Cole says Zeke is his pick to win the tournament and admires his muscles. They lockup to start. Drew pushes Jackson into the corner and gloats about it. He slaps Jackson and taunts him. Zeke clotheslines Drew a few times and hits one final clothesline in the corner and then runs into him. Drew’s down now. Zeke tries to pick him up but Drew drapes Zeke’s head onto the turnbuckle and snaps it back. A cover by Drew gets a two. He pushes Jackson into the corner and punches away. Drew clotheslines him down. He picks him up but Jackson uses his strength to propel Drew, as well as himself, out of the ring. Both men end up getting counted out. Post match, they go back in the ring and Drew tries to set up Zeke for the Future Shock DDT but Jackson fights out and clotheslines him out as the commentators mention that Sheamus gets a bye.
Analysis: ¼* Punch, punch, kick, clothesline repeat. It went 3 minutes.
They show Daniel Bryan icing his shoulder. The Bellas show up and try to flirt with him before Alex Riley enters and asks them why they’re flirting with a nerd. Riley gets a phone call from The Miz and kisses his ass a bit. He tells the Bellas they’re not needed and then tells Bryan that he missed out on The Miz’ mentoring. He closes by saying “Welcome to Miz-fest 2010.”
Commercial
Clips of The Miz winning the WWE Championship last week are shown. The video really emphasizes the fact that Orton was not 100 % and was vulnerable due to an injured knee. They show a shot of a pissed off little girl in the crowd. Unintentional hilarity at its finest.
The Miz enters with Alex Riley as Cole goes apeshit. Cole calls him the greatest champion in the history of WWE. Miz said he had a huge celebration planned, but he didn’t need it because seeing how shocked and angry the WWE Universe was was enough satisfaction for him. He said he summed up the feeling of the WWE Universe when he won the title. He then shows two shots of the pissed off little girl I referred to earlier LOL. Wow. He says that girl will forever be known as “The Miz girl” and he wants to thank her for the struggle he had to go through to get here. He goes on and says how everyone doubted him and said he would amount to nothing. He brought up JBL, Triple-H and Cena. He says that he now holds the title and says for those people, “The Miz is WWE Champion.” Perfect chance to take a shot at Kevin Nash here. Didn’t happen. Miz then brings up Randy Orton and says that the only thing injured on Orton is his pride and then says that he will be the longest reigning WWE Champion in history. He then says, if you want to take anything away from this speech, take this “When someone says you can’t liveyour dream, believe them. Because you can’t.” Really good heat there. He calls himself one in a billion because he actually has achieved his dreams. He brings up Roddy piper and says he didn’t make anything happen. The Miz tells Riley to hold up a WWE Championship history book and mentions that Piper isn’t in that book. He brings up the fact that Steamboat, Perfect and Muraco aren’t in the book either.
Lawler grabs a mic and interrupts. He says congratulations are in order but tells the Miz that he beat a guy who was attacked by seven other people prior to the match. Lawler says that it may make him clever but doesn’t make him awesome. The Miz shoots back by saying he achieved something in one night that Lawler couldn’t in four decades. Cold. Michael Cole intervenes and tells Lawler to relax and to let The Miz have his moment. Lawler tells The Miz to face someone who wasn’t attacked by seven other guys if he wants to really prove he’s awesome. Lawler mentions that some of the guys who never became champion didn’t because they weren’t given that opportunity. Including him. He says that he’s been around since 1993 and hasn’t ever had a title shot. He then asks The Miz to face him in a title match. Miz declines and says that Lawler has done nothing in 40 years and calls him a shell of a hall of famer. Email time. The GM chimes in and makes The Miz vs Jerry Lawler for the WWE Championship tonight. Big pop for that. But that’s not all. The GM also mentions that the match will be a TLC match. Can Lawler even climb a ladder at 60 years old? I guess The Miz is going to be a human bumping machine tonight. This was a really entertaining segment. The Miz, like always was on point here and generated a lot of heat with the things he said. The man is absolute gold on the microphone. The shot of the pissed off little girl was a nice touch.
Commercial
First Round KOTR Match
Sheamus vs Kofi Kingston
Sheamus starts out with a knee to the gut and backs Kofi into the ropes. Clothesline sends them both over the top and out. They go back in and Kofi hits a few kicks but gets hit with a backbreaker. Pinfall attempt by Sheamus gets 2. Sheamus stomps on Kofi’s back and locks in a submission, which quickly turns into a chinlock. Kofi fights out and hits a few kicks in the corner, few chops followed by a dropkick and a flying forearm. Kofi hits the boom drop on Sheamus, goes for the pin but only gets two. Kofi tries to jump on Sheamus in the corner but Sheamus gets out of the way. Sheamus picks him up from the top turnbuckle and puts him in the High Cross position. Kofi wiggles out, turns around and hits a trouble in paradise. Kofi climbs to the top but flies right into a Brogue Kick. Sheamus pins him and gets 3. Nice finish.
Analysis: *1/2 Not necessarily a bad match clocking in at only 5 minutes, but not good either. Just whatever. It was rushed. I was expecting more from these two but then I remembered that this isn’t Smackdown.
Commercial
Yoshi Tatsu and Mark Henry vs Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel
Looks like Gabriel’s sporting a new beard. Gabriel and Tatsu start things out. Tatsu goes for a pinfall attempt early. Jawbreaker by Gabriel as he tags in Slater. Wendy Slater stomps away on Tatsu in the corner and tags Gabriel back in. They show John Cena walking through the crowd with a ticket in his hand. He’s wearing his usual purple gear. Does Cena ever change his clothes? He goes to sit down in the front row. This is weird. I was expecting Juan. Mark Henry gets tagged in and “unloads” as Cole says, on Heath Slater. Pinfall attempt by Henry only gets 2 as Gabriel interferes. Whip in the corner. Henry runs into Slater’s boot. It’s only enough to momentarily daze him because Slater, who thinks he’s got the upper hand now, runs right into a World Strongest Slam. Henry gets the three count and that’s it. After the match Cena jumps over the guardrail, and gives Slater a huge AA through the announce table and runs off doing the “you can’t see me” hand sign. That was pretty funny. Cole mentions how Cena’s revenge on Nexus continues.
Analysis: ½* Basic, quick tag match. The post match AA was the highlight.
Commercial
Clips of Cena taking out Slater and McGillicutty are shown.
They show Otunga, Harris and Gabriel backstage. Otunga says that Cena is going to come after them sooner or later. Barrett enters and says that Cena’s fired so there’s no restrictions on what they can do to him. He says he’s calling out Cena later tonight.
Arn Anderson and Lawler are shown talking and Arn says a title match is long overdue. He says TLC matches are dangerous and tells Lawler that he might get hurt. Lawler says he’s never been in a TLC match but he’s never been in a WWE title match either. Arn wishes him luck.
They show updated KOTR brackets. Morrison/Del Rio is next.
Semi Final Match:
Alberto Del Rio vs. John Morrison
Morrison puts his shades on a kid in the front row a la Bret Hart before the match. Two of my favorites here. I’m really looking forward to this. Del Rio starts out with a kick and a few punches. He whips Morrison into the corner but runs right into a boot. JoMo flies off the top with a dropkick. Del Rio goes outside onto the apron and pulls Morrison’s arm over the rope hard. That’s enough to take control of the match. He goes to work on the arm. Pinfall attempt by Alberto only gets two. Del Rio keeps Morrison grounded and works the arm a bit more. Morrison fights out with punches but receives a knee to the gut. Morrison hits a forearm as Del Rio bounces off the ropes and gets caught with a heel kick. Both guys are up now. Del Rio hits an armbreaker and gets a two count. He puts Morrison in the corner and catches him with his patented running kick. Mysterio comes out and distracts Del Rio by honking the horn on the car Del Rio entered in. Morrison’s able to regroup during the distraction and he capitalizes by bouncing off the second rope and kicking Del Rio square in the face. That’s enough to get the three count. After the match, CM Punk calls Rey Mysterio a car theif and that payback is a “something”. Punk’s awesome.
Analysis: *3/4 Way too short. It was only about three minutes. They worked at an accelerated pace and it showed.
Wade Barrett is shown walking to the ring. He’s calling out John Cena next.
Commercial
Barrett comes out to the ring by himself and says that he sees right through Cena’s transparent plan. He says that he’s heard from the Raw GM that he is the only person who can give him his job back and that by Cena beating up Nexus until he gives in won’t work. He says that he won’t reinstate him just because Cena is trying to take apart the Nexus. He says that John Cena will never work in WWE again and that the Nexus will get their hands on Cena. Cena interrupts him when he shows up on the tron. Cena says that it’s not about keeping his job. It’s about keeping his word, and before he got fired he promised to take out every member of The Nexus. Barrett calls for WWE security to escort Cena out but Cena mentions that The Nexus previously beat the shit out of WWE security and that it may not be a good idea to call security now. Members of the Nexus show up and look like they’re about to attack Cena. Cena says “I’m not the only enemy you got around here.” Various Raw superstars attack the Nexus. Cena gives Justin Gabriel the AA on a car. That looked like it hurt. So this angle looks like it’s far from over.
Commercial
They show a replay of the Raw superstars beating up The Nexus and of course, the AA on the car.
Alicia Fox, Maryse and Tamina vs. Melina, Natalya and Gail Kim
Melina and Maryse start things out. Maryse bails to the outside and Melina chases her. She jumps on her back but Maryse fights her off. Cover by Maryse only gets one. Fox gets tagged in, she stomps Melina. Fox goes for a clothesline but Melina ducks it matrix style. Fox punches Melina while she’s down but Melina pushes her down and Fox lands back first on Melina’s knees. Santino saves us all by coming out and playing an acoustic guitar and singing to Tamina. Tamina grabs him by the neck and Santino says that he loves her strength and continues playing. So I guess Tamina’s out of the match. Does anybody care? Not me. Back in the ring. Natalya sets Alicia Fox up for the sharpshooter but Maryse makes the save. Melina takes care of her and Natalya goes right back for the sharpshooter. Fox taps.
Analysis: ½* Much like the tag match earlier in the night, the highlight involved someone who wasn’t even in the match. Santino coming out and singing to Tamina was cool. Match was bad. That was expected though.
Video package highlighting Jerry Lawler’s career. They show Lawler backstage.
Commercial
They show Maryse and Ted DiBiase backstage. Maryse makes fun of Ted for tapping out to a guy smaller than her. I want to see Bryan vs. Maryse. Ted, very loudly tells her to “shut up”and storms out. I like this new intense and more driven Ted DiBiase. Now just change that awful theme music.
Otunga and Harris are shown backstage planning something…
Josh Matthews interviews Sheamus and Morrison at the same time. I miss interviews like this. They remind me of Piper/Hart @ WM 8 and Perfect/Hart from KOTR 93. Speaking of KOTR 93, that one was good. This one thus far, has not been. Matthews mentions that Morrison beat Sheamus at the Survivor Series. Sheamus says that he made a mistake and Morrison capitalized. He pointed out that Morrison has already competed twice tonight and now has a bad arm. He said he’s “slim pickins”. Hey, I didn’t say it. Morrison shoots back and says that when that bell rings, it doesn’t matter if Sheamus is taller than him and looks like powder, the only thing that matters is that only one of them is going to walk out the king. They stare each other down as we go to commercial.
KOTR Finals
John Morrison vs. Sheamus
Will it be as good as their match at Survivor Series? Seeing as nearly all the KOTR matches have been disappointing thus far, I honestly don’t think so. Rima Fakih is the guest ring announcer for the match. No idea who she is. She enters with Santino and MAN does she look hot! Sheamus enters first. Punk says that Sheamus is his pick to win. John Morrison enters and I can’t help but think how much he deserves to be in this match. The guy has really come a long way since his failed ECW Title run. Cole plays up Morrison’s bad shoulder as the bell rings. Morrison goes right after Sheamus but Sheamus immediately goes to work on Morrison’s bad arm. He locks in an armbar early. JoMo punches him, tries to bounce off the ropes and do that turnaround kick he beat Del Rio with, but Sheamus intelligently pushes him off the ropes and Morrison lands on the floor outside the ring as they go to commercial break.
We come back from commercial and Sheamus is shown working over Morrison’s arm. They show a replay of Sheamus ramming Morrison’s shoulder into the guardrail during the break. Sheamus hits an armbreaker, goes for a cover but only gets two. Powder boy continues beating on Morrison. He clubs at his chest a few times and locks in another armbar. Morrison punches and kicks but Sheamus comes right back with a forearm of his own. Morrison hits an elbow, but Sheamus clubs him down. Morrison hits a few consecutive punches, runs the ropes and hits two clotheslines, followed by a heel kick to the jaw. He covers and gets two. He stays on Sheamus. He hits three turnbuckle punches in the corner before Sheamus is able to throw him off. That sent JoMo flying ¾’s across the ring. Sheamus misses a Brogue kick as Morrison ducks but he turns right around and clotheslines JoMo’s head off. Marty Morrison did a 360 selljob there. Sheamus gets Morrison up for the high cross, but it’s reversed it into a backslide. He can’t get the Celtic Warrior down though. Morrison elbows Sheamus and he runs into him as Sheamus attempts a backbreaker, which Morrison reverses into a really cool looking spinning DDT! He covers but only gets two after Sheamus grabbed the bottom rope. That was close. They’re both on their feet now and Sheamus gets the upper hand again as he tries to ram Morrison head into the turnbuckle, but Morrison fights out. Morrison goes up top but gets thrown hard off the turnbuckle onto the bad shoulder. Sheamus locks in a Fujiwara armbar. Morrison, while still locked into the submission gets up to a vertical base and tries to fight out. He’s able to momentarily, but Sheamus locks it in a second time and grounds Morrison once again. Morrison somersaults out of the armbar whilst kicking Sheamus in the head. Sheamus quickly grabs Morrison from behind but Morrison blindsides him with ANOTHER kick out of nowhere. Kick city. Population: Sheamus. Morrison realizes he has an opportunity and goes for Starship Pain. Sheamus gets the knees up to block it. Morrison, despite taking a double knee shot to the back remains on his feet. Sheamus gets up. Brogue Kick!! He picks Morrison up in the High Cross position. This time he’s able to hit it. 1-2-3. Sheamus is your King of the Ring!
Analysis: ***1/4 Solid match. It went about 11 minutes. Everything after the commercial break was intense. The finish was really well done too. I’d say it was just as good, if not a tad better than their Survivor Series match. The crowd was into this one a lot more than that one.
Sheamus walks up to the KOTR throne and gets crowned by Rima Fakih. He gets on the mic and says something about the Kings of Ireland that I didn’t get. He says “Long live the king!” as CM Punk says “All hail King Sheamus!” I guess this means the King of Kings returns to take on King Sheamus. Gonna be hearing the word “King” a lot during that feud.
Commercial
Advert for John Cena’s new DVD. Word Life.
TLC Match for the WWE Championship
The Miz (champ) vs. Jerry Lawler
The Miz enters first with Riley. The ring is completely surrounded by tables, ladders and chairs. Cool visual. Lawler comes out second, and are those golf claps I hear? Honestly, I have respect for Lawler but this match shouldn’t even be happening. I’m really looking forward to see how they try to make this work. The bell rings, they lock up to start and Lawler hits a stiff punch to the face. The Miz gets a scoop slam and taunts the king. All the while, Cole is kissing The Miz’ ass. Lawler gets up and hits a scoop slam of his own. The Miz gets up and hits a flurry of strikes and throws Lawler to the outside. Riley hands Miz a chair and he drills Lawler with it. Twice. Miz throws Lawler back in and sets up two chairs beside each other. He sets him up for a vertical suplex on the chairs, but Lawler blocks it and goes for one of his own. The Miz floats over, however and lands on his feet. The Miz follows up with his signature neckbreaker. I think it was supposed to be on the chairs but they were out of position. Oh well. Lawler saved himself a sore neck at least. The Miz punches away at Lawler and knocks him down. He tells Riley to set up a ladder, but while The Miz is ordering Riley to set it up, Lawler is able to regroup and nail Miz with a chair a few times from behind. Those were hard shots! Lawler goes outside and punches Riley. He grabs a ladder. The Miz tries to stop Lawler from bringing it in but takes a ladder to the face for it. Lawler brings it in and tries to ram the ladder into The Miz’ gut but Miz dodges it. The Miz punches Lawler and takes control. A whip into the ladder is blocked by Lawler. Miz charges at Lawler and takes a backdrop right onto the ladder. Crowd popped big for that. Alex Riley gets up on the apron and nails Lawler. Riley tries to suplex Lawler over the top and to the outside but the king drills him with a right hand and Riley falls square onto one of the many tables that was set up outside. Lawler goes to climb up but The Miz is up too now and knocks him down. Miz hits a suplex as Cole says The Miz is making an example out of Jerry Lawler. The Miz drills Lawler with two more chairshots. The Miz stupidly climbs to the top rope and the king crotches him. Lawler attempts a superplex off the second rope but The Miz knocks him off. While sitting atop the turnbuckle, The Miz gets decked hard by Lawler and smashes through a table outside the ring. Nasty bump there. Lawler realizes that he has a chance now and starts climbing but MICHAEL COLE gets in the ring and grabs Lawler’s foot. Lawler asks him “What are you doing?!” Cole says he didn’t mean it. Lawler drills him right in the mouth! Thank God! Punk continues to commentate on his own. The Miz is up now and attempts to climb the ladder but Lawler climbs up from the other side. Both men are on the ladder now, punching each other. The Miz grabs the title and smacks it in Lawler’s face as the king falls off the ladder and hits the mat. The Miz is alone now on the ladder and he unhooks the title to win the match and retain the WWE Championship in his first title defense.
Analysis: **1/2 Pretty good match, actually. I thought it would be impossible for The Miz to work with Lawler but the whole TLC stipulation really helped them put together a solid match. It wasn’t a classic or anything of that sort, but it was pretty damn decent. At 12 minutes, this was the longest match of the night. Of course, this match was done to promote the upcoming TLC ppv and I think it did a good job of doing that. Hats off to Jerry Lawler. The Miz did most of the bumping here, but you gotta have respect for a guy who can take two chair shots and fall down a ladder at 60 years old.
Wrap up
Well, this was a long show. The actual wrestling wasn’t great overall, but there were some nice matches with Morrison vs. Sheamus being the best. Del Rio vs. Bryan was pretty good too, although way too short. Sheamus winning the King of the Ring isn’t a huge deal since he’s been WWE Champion twice. But like I said, he needed a way to get his heat back. Miz/Lawler was pretty decent, although I don’t think it was a good idea to have a newly crowned champion have a competitive match with a 60 year old legend who was never a big threat to the title at any point in his career. It made The Miz look kind of weak, especially considering his win over Orton last week is being dubbed a fluke. The Miz needs to get a big win over a viable contender soon. A decent show overall. Check out the Morrison vs. Sheamus match if you missed it. See ya Friday for Smackdown.
Posted by Sunny on November 30th, 2010 :: Filed under
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