WWE RAW Coverage: Too Much Country, Not Enough Wrasslin’

This was supposed to be the go-home show before Survivor Series, but between the country music antics and the Divas Musical Chairs segment, this week’s RAW was far from the stellar.

At the same time, a good TV card, some funny spots with Brad Maddox and Vikki Guerrero made for some entertaining moments, while Triple H and Stephanie McMahon’s “thinking over” of the Randy Orton situation was something to ponder. Regardless, only a fool would say that Survivor Series has had the proper build up. The fact of the matter is there isn’t one major feud that has the capability of getting fans to go crazy.

Simply put, while WWE programming is watchable, it’s not nearly as solid a show as it could be.

Matches:

No DQ: WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Brad Maddox: The RAW General Manager got in some early offense, but Orton eventually beat the youngster with a microphone until the referee threw the match out.

Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel vs. Big E. Langston: A solid match that saw Langston hit his usual assortment of strikes. Axel was solid and sold well, but couldn’t hit the big move when he had to. Langston ultimately won with the Big Ending.

The Big Show vs. Ryback: “The Human Wrecking Ball” was absolutely manhandled by Big Show. Although he had some momentary offense, Show was in control the majority of the match. After a nice shot at Show’s knee, Ryback got the upper-hand and hit Show with the Meathook Clothesline and the Shellshock, but Show kicked out and ultimately finished off Ryback with a WMD for the win. After the match, Show nailed Randy or ton with a Spear after the WWE Champion tried to sneak in and soften Show up before Survivor Series.

Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger w/Zeb Colter vs. Kofi Kingston and The Miz: The Real Americans are a damn good tag team and they proved it again this week. Doing the majority of the heavy lifting, The Miz and Kingston sold like crazy. Kingston made his usual face comeback and looked great until The Miz refused to tag himself back in the match. This allowed Swagger to latch on the Patriot Lock for the victory.

Divas Champion AJ Lee w/Tamina Snuka vs. Vikki Guerrero: After minutes of tomfoolery, Lee won with the Black Widow.

Broadway Brawl: Dolph Ziggler vs. Damien Sandow: A mess of a match that saw a plethora of hardcore action an near falls. Sandow hit Ziggler with a cello and an electric guitar, but couldn’t get the win. Ziggler got the win after he put two drums over Sandow’s head and finished him off with an acoustic guitar.

Jinder Mahal and Drew MacIntyre w/ Heath Slater vs. R. Truth and Xavier Woods: Truth and Woods won after Truth hit the Reverse Michinoku Driver and Osaka Street Cutter and handed it over to Woods who finished off MacIntyre with the Honor Roll and a version of Gail Kim’s Eat Da Feet Finisher.

CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Jimmy and Jey Uso and WWE Tag Team Champions Goldust and Cody Rhodes vs. Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Luke Harper, Erik Rowan and Bray Wyatt: This had the makings of a classic 12-man tag and between the pacing, quick tags and plethora of offense, it certainly delivered early on. While The Shield and Wyatt’s bickered, the Tag Team Champs and Usos (Bryan and Punk looked like spectators in the beginning) delivered signature moves and textbook tag action. Eventually Rollins got the advantage and it stayed that way for a few minutes as the trio used submissions and strikes to slow the match down. When Harper tagged in, that allowed Bryan to get into the match and that’s when things sped up. Bryan went on a tear, but Harper countered with a beautiful running Powerbomb. Wyatt then entered the match and began to break down Bryan. It then appeared The Shield and Family were on the same page as the two began to tag each other in and out. With Bryan unable to make the tag, both The Shield and Family beat on him on the inside and outside of the ring. After a wonderful DDT counter, Bryan was able to tag in Punk, who worked over The Shield. Punk synched in the Anaconda Vice on Ambrose, but soon enough everyone was involved. After a slew of signature offense from all the competitors, Punk got the win with the GTS on Ambrose.

After the match, Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger tried to spoil the party, but the returning Rey Mysterio evened the odds.