WWE RAW Coverage: RIP Shawn Michaels

Patience is a virtue if you watch the WWE every week. At first glance, a non-title match between CM Punk and Big Show seems like a waste, especially with a big title match less than a week away at Summerslam. Everything ended up falling into place this week though, as a nice combination of matches and storyline fueled a show that teased Summerslam beautifully.

Between the Piper’s Pit segment and the contract signing between Brock Lesnar and Triple H, this show had good pacing. Vikki Guerrero, Roddy Piper, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz in the ring at the same time was great. At times it felt as if Piper was out of place, but the segment itself was solid. Even with the loss later in the night, Jericho has some momentum going into a match that Ziggler needs to win badly.

To “hear”  and then see the decimation of HBK last night too sets the scene for what looks to be a great pay per view this Sunday.

While the promo for Summerslam was a bit too much and the repeated highlights from last week a bit bogged down, the show was still enjoyable.

Matches:

WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Big Show: Interesting non-title encounter. Punk, even as a heel, got the fans’ support as he sold for most of the match. Punk made Show look extra strong as he made it appear he couldn’t get him off his feet. Show hit a Spear towards the end of the match and that’s when Daniel Bryan made his way to the ring. Punk kicked out of a sideslam while Bryan ranted to Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler that he deserved a title shot. Once Punk finally took Show off his feet with a top rope clothesline, Bryan jumped in the match and latched on the No Lock and got the match thrown out. Soon Enough, John Cena joined the party, leaving him and Punk in the ring. This set up the show’s main event.

JTG vs. Ryback: JTG said he wanted a match, well he got one. A Belly-to-Belly overhead suplex, a Powerbomb, his patented clothesline and his Marching Torture Rack/Samoan Drop finisher was all it took for a Ryback win.

WWE Tag Team Champion R-Truth vs. Heath Slater: The One-Man Band had some decent spots here, but R-Truth won with his Complete Shot finisher. After the match, Truth was beaten down by the Primetime Players.

Sin Cara vs. Tensai w/ Sakamoto: A very quick match that saw Tensai get owned by Sin Cara. Countering nearly every move, Cara won with the Tornado DDT. After the match, Tensai beat up Sakamoto.

Triple Threat Match: Chris Jericho vs. Dolph Ziggler w/ Vikki Guerrero vs. The Miz: Ziggler and Miz worked over Jericho through most of the match. But as predicted, they couldn’t work together for long and that’s when Jericho made his move. Using his ring positioning well, he was always a stop ahead of the two youngsters. Ziggler got back into the contest eventually and after a Rocker Dropper it appeared he had the upper-hand. Soon enough, Miz hit the Skull-Crushing Finale on Ziggler and Jericho nailed Miz with the Code Breaker. Just when you thought the match was over as Jericho had Miz in the Walls of Jericho, Ziggler caught Jericho with the Zig-Zag for the win.

Kaitlyn and Divas Champion Layla vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve Torrez: Aside from the solid work of Phoenix, this match was a bore. Kaitlyn won with the roll up on Phoenix.

Daniel Bryan and Big Show vs. John Cena and WWE Champion CM Punk: Seeing Cena and Punk tagging themselves in and impersonating each other the way they were was entertaining. Bryan’s ability to work the crowd when he isn’t outperforming everyone is equally impressive. Cena won with the Attitude Adjustment. After the match, Punk took out Big Show with the belt.

Damien Sandow vs. Christian: Good, fast-paced and quick match. Sandow was great in his first real match on RAW. He nearly lost after Brodus Clay came out, but hit his neckbreaker on Christian for the win.

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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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