SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE RAW TALK
DECEMBER 21, 2020
STREAMED ON WWE NETWORK
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Hosts: Charly Caruso, R-Truth
This week’s guests: Ricochet, Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander of The Hurt Business, and Charlotte Flair
– Charly introduced the show, and with R-Truth back in the co-host chair once again had to mention their stupid little name game, “CharTruth”,ugh! Anyway after some inane banter back and forth regarding the 24/7 title belt, Charly recapped the action including the big angle from the main event where Sheamus kicked Keith Lee after the end of the match (split screen showed the clip).
– After getting into the psychology of men dealing with their anger and aggression, Charly brought up the end of TLC with the burning of a Fiend dummy and the Alexa segment from the show and foreshadowed that since Alexa wasn’t upset, The Fiend will be back. So strange, she actually said it, but then covered it with saying it was only her thoughts. So stupid, even the scripting here on Raw Talk is bad.
– Thankfully (or maybe not) the show moved on and Charly introduced the first guest: Ricochet. They showed several clips of Ricochet versus Retribution and framed Ricochet totally in the light of his conflict with them. Like his last appearance, Ricochet appeared dressed as a regular guy and actually did a good job with his commentary. Basically saying, he could just come out and say his losses and struggles with Retribution are all part of the game, but instead he said he was “pissed”. Unfortunately both Charly and Truth undermined this story by saying, hey, maybe it might be a good idea to go in a different direction (join Retribution?). Then Ricochet went from being pissed off to saying “why do I always fail?” What, that was a fast switch. And then Charly actually said, “Well, if you can’t beat them, join them”. Shaking my head here, why don’t they just come out and say, hey fans, Ricochet is going to join Retribution in three weeks? This is just lazy writing and very obvious foreshadowing. Bad!
– R-Truth tried to build Ricochet up and told him not to give in, but then they had Ricochet just appear weak and whiny, so sad for this real talent to be turned into a weepy sad sack. I will say this, it is now completely obvious that Ricochet will be making some changes (I would predict a joining of Retribution).
– Next up, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. Charly and Truth gushed over the two members of The Hurt Business noting their clothes and their new Tag Team title belts, while Shelton and Cedric just acted cool. Shelton brought up that Truth had crashed the Hurt Business’ victory party on Raw and Truth pretty much denied it was him, but then they moved on quickly as Charly asked about how it felt to be the Tag Team champions. Cedric said it felt great and then Shelton started dumping on Ricochet for not joining the Hurt Business when had the chance.
– Charly asked Cedric about him saying that it was the “age of Alexander” (Shelton looked a bit pissed – are they really going down this road already?) but Cedric corrected her that he was Prime Alexander (huh?). Turning this from something that would get Shelton pissed to prime equals excellence, and when asked Shelton agreed. With Shelton putting Cedric over, the segment ended.
– It was now time to kneel to the queen as Charlotte joined them on the set. Charlotte had a huge smile and really seemed to be enjoying herself and laughing and seemed very unscripted. She seemed very sincere when she said that this is what she had been missing for six months and really put Asuka over strong as the heart of WWE for the past several months. Charlotte continued to build up Asuka by saying that when Charlotte beat Asuka snapping her unbeaten streak, that was when Charlotte really made her bones and became one of the top wrestlers.
– The segment continued with Charlotte mostly selling the rest of the women in the division rather than posing and speaking like “The Queen”. This was very refreshing. Charlotte gave a really great performance here, and if it was scripted I give her props, as this came across authentic and off the cuff. In the ring, Charlotte can be very stiff and stilted, but here she was unleashed, they should let her do this when she does her promos on the main show. Bravo Charlotte, great job!
FINAL THOUGHTS
A quick 23 minute show that was okay, but the final segment with Charlotte made this a must watch! Seeing this Charlotte was great. She was full of joy and excitement and the segment came off with a real sports feel, instead of Vince’s normal “sports-entertainment” nonsense. They should make every wrestler watch this segment and simply say to them “DO THIS!”
The Hurt Business segment was totally worthless and really didn’t do anything.Wwhile Ricochet is definitely doing better on his segments here, the scripting tonight was just bad and seemed very meandering and rather than drawing sympathy did more to make me just want to write Ricochet off.
On thing I will say that I just thought of is this: Everyone is probably waiting for Ricochet to give in and join Retribution, but what about if he instead goes hat in hand back to The Hurt Business (Shelton even mentioned tonight that Ricochet had a chance to be part of Hurt Business), join up with them, and then go out and kick the tar out of Retribution once and for all taking them out and finally off the show. Just a thought.
Well, that is it for now, see you all next week. Until then, take care and stay safe.
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