KELLER'S RAW BLOG
JULY 23, 2012
AIRED LIVE ON USA NETWORK
LIVE FROM ST. LOUIS, MO.

-The screen opened with "WWE Then, Now, Forever." Then a video package aired with big moments on Raw over the years including "Bret screwed Bret," "I love my smile," and Edge retiring. Also, clips of the Eddie Guerrero tribute. It’s too bad that Owen Hart has been erased from WWE history. Part of it is his death was the result of an on-the-job acident, not a “personal choice” or “personal demons.” Also, Martha Hart, Owen’s widow, has made it difficult for WWE to legally air footage of Owen, not wanting WWE to exploit his death as some “feel good moment.” Vickie Guerrero, Eddie’s widow, obviously has a different opinion of how to remember her husband, but then the circumstances of her husband’s death were different.

-Aren’t even the biggest DX fans starting to see the humor by Shawn Michaels and Triple H as groan-worthy, like the dad at the wedding who’s had too much to drink and begins acting like he’s in high school again?

-The DX members all embraced enthusiastically, even Billy Gunn and Triple H, who exchanged some harsh words over the years.

-Quotebook - Jerry Lawler on DX: "These guys look great. They could start another Attitude Era tomorrow." Lawler shouldn't tease the Cena-era hating fans like that.

-Triple H led them in the "Let's get ready to…" chant, saying he is the leader because he's the only one left with a full head of a hair. X-Pac in response gave that ”Oh, youuu!” look and then gave him the crotch chop with a laugh. It is safe to assume that if someone in wrestling has long hair and a pony tail in 2012 and they're over age 30 that they're hiding a bald spot.

-Quotebook - Triple H: "See you all at Raw #2,000."

-When Billy Gunn bantered with Michaels, Triple H told Gunn to be sure he didn't cause Shawn to lose his smile. After Triple H joked with Michaels about posing for Playgirl back in the 1990s, Michaels said he was young and stupid and needed the money.

-Then they were interrupted by Damien Sandow. Some long-time fans might wonder who Sandow is, especially if they don't watch Smackdown, but it's smart to intermix stars of the past with today's rising stars or newer characters to introduce them to fans tuning in for this special show who might otherwise not watch every week. Even though Sandow was destroyed here, there are a lot of heels who would have liked to have been in the spotlight he was in as a heel.

-It's great that Jim Ross was brought out in a respectful manner. He looked great, and the goatee fits him well. Lawler and Cole were dressed in tuxedos. Lawler joked that he must've missed his memo about wearing a tuxedo. Cole said Ross was the voice of Raw for 15 years.

-No disrespect to Cole (even though the heel lead announcer concept is among the dumbest business moves WWE has made ever), but it was so refreshing to hear Ross's voice back calling the matches. He is just such a good match for calling the action in a way that brings you more into the action.

-By the way, the new Raw logo is good. It's part of the 2010s simplification of logos with cleaner crisper appearances.

-No surprise Chris Jericho jobbed in the opener. It wasn't a clean loss in the sense that Dolph Ziggler, his owner partner, punched him first, but it does make sense for Jericho to be jobbing to today's stars who are going to be leaned on for the next several years to draw. In this case, Sheamus won. It also makes sense to have Ziggler cost Jericho the win, since Jericho is turning babyface and set to face Jericho at Summerslam.

-Cole was gracious with Ross, thanking him for being there. It's totally out of Cole's character, but maybe Raw #1,000 marks the arbitrary point where Cole leaves his tired and counter-productive heel persona behind. We can only hope.

-Since Ross only got to call one match, it was a way of throwing a bone to the Ross fans, but also establishing Cole is still the new alpha and Ross is not coming back. I still like the idea of Cole calling the first 90 minutes of Raw and then tagging out to Ross mid-show.

-They went to clips of WWE fans on Tout talking about the Daniel Bryan vs. A.J. wedding. It felt relatively restrained.

-Charlie Sheen faked his way through some chummy references to DX and Sheamus.

-Quotebook - A.J.: "Why does everyone continue calling me mentally unstable? Have they taken a look around here? This entire place is unstable."

-The skit with the man dressed as a hand standing next to Mae Young saying he is Mae Young's son all grown up was actually kinda funny. I’ve always wondered what happened to him after he was born. He seemed well-adjusted and happy despite being a hand.

-Jerry Lawler said this special edition of Raw started "an hour early." He failed to note it's the NEW weekly start time, not just for this special episode. They actually didn’t push the new three hour format much at all throughout the show.

-Poor Jack Swagger. Will he ever stop Being Made An Example Of?

-Some brunnette lady tried to talk Triple H into doing yoga. He said it's not for him because he's not flexible. Isn't that pretty much the point of doing yoga? To get flexible? As Triple H bent over with that mystery lady behind him, the rest of DX walked in and made jokes. They all left except Waltman, who flirted with this lady a little, but he was really, really hoarse. I’m told that lady nobody recognized was Trish Stratus, but I don’t believe it because Trish was blonde.

-A WWE poll asked should A.J. say "I do" or not. Shortly there after "ajIdont" was the no. 1 trend on Twitter worldwide.

-Slick came out to seemingly no reaction to "Jive Soul Bro" as Cole touted him as the first black manager in WWE history. It’s strange which characters from the past fans today remember and which they don’t.

-Quotebook - Jerry Lawler: "Just remember, love is grand, but divorce is 100 grand." Or in the case of John Cena, 10 million.

-As A.J. walked out to the ring for the wedding to no reaction (maybe out of respect to the ceremonial music, the crowd was silent), Cole brought up famous weddings in WWE history including Stephanie/Triple H and Lita/Kane. Interesting that Randy Savage & Elizabeth was not mentioned, as it's the most famous. And what about Uncle Elmer's wedding on Saturday Night's Main Event back in the 1980s? No surprise they left out of Billy & Chuck.

-When Vince McMahon walked out after A.J. said she had accepted a proposal from another man, I was wondering how this storyline was going to affect Vince’s real-life wife Linda’s senatorial campaign. Then quickly Vince said the proposal wasn’t for marriage, but rather to become Raw G.M. This decision got lost in the shuffle of the rest of the show. I hope WWE presents some sort of institutional logic for giving the seemingly completely unqualified A.J. the job as G.M., in theory one of the most important positions one could hold in all of WWE.

-It was nice to see Rock without the dynamic with John Cena. It was also nice to see him not all jacked up like for WrestleMania, but more "normal" looking.

-Quotebook - The Rock to Daniel Bryan: "You don't get to say who the greatest of all-time is. They get to say who the greatest of all-time is."

-When you think about where Daniel Bryan was just a few years ago, what a thrill it must have been for him to be in there interacting with The Rock on Raw #1,000. It has to be encouraging to anyone on the indy scene out there who doesn't fit the typical WWE mold. Of course, it helps to be as good as Bryan is.

-Rock is more comfortable when he's not wondering when his lines are going to be stepped on or what secret agenda is going to play out to undercut him.

-Rock broke the news that at the Royal Rumble, he will face whomever the WWE Champion is for the title. There was almost zero reaction from the crowd, which is strange. Punk said he will be the champion at the Rumble.

-Rock didn't make me believe he has a passion for becoming the WWE Champion again. With all of his movie success and considering his time away from WWE full-time, he needed to have a believable reason to want to become WWE Champion again. Is he willing to put his busy movie schedule aside if he wins the title, or is he going to be a “part-time” champion if he wins? Without some sort of mission statement from Rock, it feels more like a PPV buyrate stunt than a believable part of Rock’s journey as a wrestler and movie star.

-Quotebook - The Rock to Bryan: "What we're looking at is what would happen if a homeless lumberjack banged an Oompa Loompa… You look like a troll from Lord of the Rings."

-That wasn't a particularly electrifying Rock appearance. It had its moments, but he's kind of lost something, perhaps more due to the context of the times than anything about him that changed. It's hard to put a finger on, but what he does just doesn't work quite as well a movie star returning to an old home. My hunch is, John Cena had something to do with undercutting the passion today’s fans have for Rock. So I suppose, for Vince McMahon and Cena, it’s “mission accomplished,” but that petty persoal issue that drove Cena’s anti-Rock sermons probably cost WWE millions of dollars.

-Cole talked about Bret Hart, guest ring announcer for the IC Title match, as an architect of the Attitude Era, noting he had some of the defining run-ins with Mr. McMahon. It was interesting to see how stars of Raw’s history were treated, and Bret was treated pretty well.

-Cole noted that Pat Patterson, Don Muraco, Ricky Steamboat, and Shawn Michaels are among the famous former IC Champs in St. Louis. We didn’t see Steamboat, Patterson, or Muraco on the show, though.

-The Miz pinning Christian to become IC Champ was a bit of a surprise. A clean win, too, with his finisher. Cole noted he's a Triple Crown winner having held the U.S. Title and WWE Title, also. Whatever dog house Miz was once in, he appears to have been set free. It’ll be interesting to see if he can rebound or if he’s damaged goods now.

-A clip aired of Regis Philbin congratulating WWE on Raw #1,000. He held up a picture of The Destroyer and said he was a fan of his going all the way back. Clips aired of wrestlers on his show over the years. He was hoarse, but less so than X-Pac, who could barely talk. He told me on the PWTorch Livecast earlier this year that he quit smoking.

-Quotebook - Triple H to Paul Heyman: "I came out here to talk to the horse's head, not to the horse's ass."

-Quotebook - Paul Heyman: "You're 100 percent right. I apologize to you. As Brock Lesnar's advocate, I shouldn't talk about your children because I feel bad for your children."

-The Heyman-Stephanie interaction felt a little rushed. I didn’t believe Heyman could be tricked into giving Triple H the match against Lesnar at Summerslam so quickly. He’s a manipulator so it seemed he’d see through that, plus it didn’t really make sense that Heyman would decide Stephanie and Hunter insulting him gave him the authority to say “yes” and insert Lesnar into a match against Hunter. Shouldn’t Lesnar have a say in that? If Lesnar’s answer was no, why does Heyman saying “yes” change Lesnar’s mind? Lesnar still has to sign a contract? But since Lesnar came out to defend Heyman, apparently Lesnar was okay with Heyman’s decision. The whole thing was one of the weaker segments on the show. Even though it had it’s moments, it just didn’t all fit together and the pacing felt rushed and the reactions of the key players felt awkward at times.

-I think Lesnar attacking Michaels would have been an effective way to build even more heat between Triple H and Lesnar.

-Fans were asked to vote for Cena vs. Austin, Andre vs. Big Show, Sheamus vs. Mankind, or C.M. Punk vs. Randy Savage as a dream match they'd like to watch in video game format, using "WWE '13." Cena vs. Austin won. Where did Foley vs. Sheamus come from? Of all “dream matches” I could imagine between WWE stars of different eras, that is not one of them. How about Bret Hart vs. Daniel Bryan? Or, heck, Brodus Clay vs. Godfather makes more sense than Sheamus vs. Foley.

-A video package aired on the Austin-McMahon feud. No Austin in-person? Just a video package? There's still Heath Slater's match, right? And then Slater’s segment came and went without Austin. It’s strange that the biggest star in Raw history wasn’t at the show.

-Road Warrior Animal most looked like he did him his prime. Facepaint helps, of course.

-Shawn Mooney returned to interview Daniel Bryan backstage. That was one of the cameos I would have thought was least likely.

-Quotebook - Daniel Bryan on Charlie Sheen: “If he was standing right here, I would slap the Yes Lock on him faster than he could say ‘winning.’”

-Good to see Okerlund get a cameo. It seems WWE is more aware of their unsolved storylines these days, given the attention to G-TV and “solving” the anonymous G.M. mystery.

-Undertaker appearing didn't feel inevitable. He has been associated more with Smackdown over the years, but obviously he was a mainstay during the Raw vs. Nitro years. With his DVD coming out, though, it makes sense he'd appear if for no other reason than to help inspire sales of that. But, on a star-filled show like this one, and given his history with WWE in general, it made sense for him to fly out for this. Taker's head is still shaved, but with a Road Warrior Animal type of mohawk. Kane and Taker together beat up an array of WWE mid-card heels who, as Cole put it, "were trying to make a name for themselves." The crowd chanted, "This is awesome." Taker is kind of growing into his "Dead Man" monicker in terms of his appearance. He's showing the wear and tear of his years.

-Charlie Sheen had the worst line of the year saying he's going to shake Bryan so hard his fake beard will come off revealing "Loser" written on his cheeks. What?!?! If that’s the awfulness that filled Sheen’s live comedy shows last year, I understand why he got booed at those.

-When Cole referred to C.M. Punk tying Hulk Hogan's record for WWE Title reign length tomorrow, he referred to him as "Hogan." It's so rare that WWE announcers mention wrestlers by only their last name on their first reference, and he followed by mentioning Bret Hart by his full name, that there must be something behind his decision to go last name only.

-Punk kicked Cena in the middle of his hand waving "You Can't See Me" bit. That deserved a bigger pop from the crowd! A lot of Cena haters have been wanting to see that more often.

-As Show continued to attack Cena, Punk just turned his back and didn't help Cena. The Rock, though, ran out and made the save as Cole said, "Somebody's got to do something!" I know the big story is Punk’s apparent turn, but did Cole go babyface tonight? He wasn’t rooting for heels and acted outraged at Punk’s attack on Rock.

-I had a lot more to say about this on last night's Keller Hotline for VIP members and then tomorrow on the PWTorch Livecast with Jason Powell of www.prowrestling.net at 5:30 ET over at www.blogtalkradio.com/pro-wrestling-torch.

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