A Forgettable Birthday Experience

Aside from the debut of Awesome Kong, last night’s WWE RAW wasn’t much to call home about.

If Ron Simmons wasn’t on the show, he would have screamed “damn,” from his couch.

At least Mae Young got a kiss from the Rock, it was more than any hardcore wrestling fan got in the end.

After Lillian Garcia sang a beautiful version of the American National Anthem, the WWE decided to waste nearly a half hour of RAW on a promo from The Rock, which achieved nothing and a performance from recording artist Pitbull and the Miami Heat cheerleaders.

If it wasn’t for the rock bottom The Rock delivered on Michael Cole, an outsider might have thought they were watching a live variety show than professional wrestling.

Luckily, the last hour featured quality matches, but by that point, it was too little too late. With John Cena and the Miz squaring off at the start of the second hour, there wasn’t much of a reason to be compelled by the second hour of the show.

Not even a rare appearance by Vince McMahon could turn this episode of RAW into a winner.

Sure, the last montage, The Rock’s birthday present, was entertaining, but overall, this episode did little to begin the set-up process for the next pay per view.

Matches:

John Morrison vs. R-Truth: Truth delivered a jumping complete shot to Morrison on the outside, followed by one on the ramp and guess what? No match. Not a great opening bout to a show void of any real wrestling through the first 30 minutes. At the very least however, Truth is showing he can be a halfway decent heel.

Maryse vs. Kelly Kelly: Enter Kharma, aka Awesome Kong. Maryse was her first victim on RAW, the recipient of a double underhook pedigree-like move that made an impression. Kelly Kelly was saved any abuse, but for how long?

The Miz vs. John Cena: The best match of the night. The Miz administered a heck of a lot of punishment on Cena and even after the ref was knocked out of the ring and he hit Cena with his finisher, he still couldn’t win back his title. However, he showed some moxie and kicked out of the attitude adjustment. Even after he hit Cena with the WWE title and presumably winning back his championship, he failed to get the out of the ring, which forced the referee to reverse his decision and give Cena the belt back.

Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger and Drew McIntyre: This match was nothing to go crazy about, as the good guys beat the big bad guys. More importantly, Alberto Del Rio was ringside providing color commentary. It appears he’s about to start a program with Mysterio, which would be a step back for the guy, considering the push he’s gotten most of the year.

Mason Ryan w/ CM Punk vs. Kane: This was the main event on RAW? Really? This is a match that should have opened the show. While Ryan looks a lot like TNA’s Rob Terry, he’s a much better wrestler and works with a better class of wrestler. His weaknesses are hidden better and he’s more believable. Seeing Ryan handle Kane and Big Show was interesting. As it result, it appears Baby Batista is going to be the recipient of a push.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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