- 30,184
- 1,991
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2000
Tonight is the go home show for Over the Limit this Sunday night. We'll get to that shortly. The big news on Raw last week was the return of Paul Heyman. Heyman returned as the representative of Brock Lesnar, who had been sent home the week before after "breaking" HHH's arm. Heyman said that Lesnar felt he had been mistreated and abused by WWE management, and thus, he quit. This of course is a way to keep Lesnar off TV for a while due to the limited dates in his contract. Heyman is scheduled to be a recurring character on TV through at least the time of the HHH/Lesnar match. HHH will return tonight from his debilitating broken arm tonight and address the WWE Universe, though it hasn't kept him from his daily job as COO or even needing to wear a brace to hold Floyd Mayweather's title belt over his head. Interestingly enough, while the HHH/Lesnar match was originally scheduled for Summerslam, many within WWE are getting antsy and want to move the match to as early as next month at No Way Out. What a mistake that would be.
John Cena was selling his injury and wasn't at Raw last week (although he miraculously was there for a dark match after Raw AND wasn't wearing a sling or selling his injury in any way). He will be facing John Laurinaitis on Sunday, presumably with a lot of outside interference from Lord Tensai and Sakamoto. I don't understand the motivation between the Cena/Laurinaitis feud. Laurinaitis is the GM of both Raw and Smackdown, and Cena is by far his biggest star. So why is he trying to take him out?
Side note: Keep your eyes peeled for any Cena Divorce signs in the crowd.
Speaking of Lord Tensai, within the past month, he's beaten John Cena and CM Punk relatively clean. I can't think of anyone who could be less over after wins of this caliber. He'll probably have another slow pace, boring match tonight where fans make fun of his gimmick. I can't blame them.
Involved in Tensai's victory over Punk last week was Daniel Bryan, who will be facing Punk for the WWE Title at Over the Limit. The show closed with D Bry locking the YES Lock on Punk. This is another feud where I don't know what the motivation is since Bryan got the shot by winning a Beat the Clock match, but if any two wrestlers could build interest in a match, it's these two. Hopefully we get something good tonight.
The World Title match for Over the Limit was changed last week on Raw. It was originally scheduled to be Sheamus defending against Alberto Del Rio, but after a tag match and locker room brawl, it is now a fatal fourway with Sheamus, Del Rio, Orton, and Jericho. This again feels like a match that was thrown together just for the sake of making the match, something that is becoming a major problem in my opinion in WWE. I'm also getting the feeling that WWE is quickly losing faith in Sheamus. He's been beaten and laid out with finishers multiple times on TV. Of course, this could just be WWE's backwards booking to have him go over at the PPV, but I really don't feel it on this one. Sheamus has not taken off like they hoped he would after the 18 second match at Mania. I wouldn't be shocked at all to see Orton walk away with the title on Sunday.
The Big Show made fun of John Laurinaitis's voice so he has to apologize tonight. Great.
A tag team title match was made at the PPV between Kofi/Truth and Ziggler/Swagger so we'll probably get something with them tonight. Shouldn't Epico and Primo get a rematch? And we'll probably have the obligatory Brodus Clay and Divas segments as well.
I'll be watching my Sixers, so I'll be starting Raw after the game.
TNA's Sacrifice PPV was last night and was the best TNA PPV in a long, long time, and it was better than most WWE PPV's as well. If you have some free time, check it out. It's much better than Superstars or NXT, and I'll almost guarantee much better than Over the Limit this Sunday.
- Christopher Daniels & Kazarian d Samoa Joe & Magnus to win the TNA Tag Team Titles. Very good opener.
- Gail Kim d Brooke Tessmacher to retain the Knockouts Title. Better than you would expect.
- Devon d Robbie T & Robbie E to retain the TV Title. Nothing special.
- Mr. Anderson d Jeff Hardy. Botched finished by Earl Hebner, counting to 3 when it wasn't the real finish. Normal Hardy stuff, and Anderson isn't very good.
- Crimon d Eric Young in an open challenge. Crimson also isn't very good. ODB accepted the challenge but EY took her place.
- Austin Aries d Bully Ray. Match of the night. Aries took a crazy bump to the outside on the guard rail. Perfect big bully vs smaller man match. Aries won after a brainbuster and locked in the Last Chancery getting Bully to tap immediately. Bully tried to attack Joseph Park, ESQ during the match from the crowd.
- Kurt Angle d AJ Styles. Another excellent match. Lots of near finishes. Daniels and Kaz got involved attacking AJ. Angle won with a heel hook submission. Daniels and Kaz attacked AJ after the match, but Angle made the save, presumably setting up a tag feud between these four.
- Robert Roode d Rob Van Dam in a ladder match to retain the TNA Heavyweight Title. Roode is very good and this was RVD's best match in ages. Lots of spots on the ladder. RVD tried to springboard onto the ladder but fell, twisting his knee in the ladder, but thankfully he was alright. Roode was climbing the ladder and kicked RVD off who fell back of the head first onto a chair. Good match as they continue the build to the eventual Roode/Storm rematch.
Overall, a very enjoyable PPV with a lot of good wrestling. Hopefully this puts TNA on the right track. They have tapings tonight so we'll see.
