Daniel Bryan interferes and causes a DQ finish to CM Punk and Big Show’s match. Show and Bryan attack Punk until Cena makes the save. AJ Lee comes out and books Cena and Punk against Show and Daniel Bryan.
^I love how WWE books a good match to open Raw and nine times out of ten you know it’s just going to be messed with and end up turning into a tag team match later in the night. It’s a booking tactic that should probably be changed up every now and then. I remember this happening with the Cena/Lesnar contract signing being advertised to open the show and then moved to the end, and there were a few other John Cena instances as well. The catch here is they want people to tune in at the start and stick around to the finish. It doesn’t make me want to stick around; it actually annoys me as a fan to ruin a potentially good segment or match to kickoff Raw.
Ryback squashes JTG.
^JTG speaks out on Twitter, and this is what he gets. Feed him more.
Shawn Michaels is shown backstage on the phone with someone. He tells who we assume to be Triple H that he needs him here tonight because this isn’t his fight.
^I could feel this as the start of a continuous run of segments to build up to the show’s end. No surprise that the corporate big wig is storyline late.
R-Truth defeats Heath Slater in a short match. The PTP attack Truth after the match.
^Resident Slater continues to job, and Truth gets beat down by the PTP minus AW. I’m guessing the tag title match this Sunday will lead to some big changes in the division.
The cancelled Del Rio/Sheamus Summerslam match is talked about.
^I’m not sure why this has been cancelled, but my best guess would be the fact that WWE wants the match to involve other Superstars for star power.
Sin Cara faces Tensai under the dimmed lights and defeats Tensai. Tensai beats up Sakamoto after the match and delivers a chokebomb to his manager.
^Sin Cara seems to be getting a nice push recently. I hope they bury Tensai as he’s boring and useless. I also like the Sin Cara/Cody Rhodes matches that we’ve seen as of late.
We have a Piper’s Pit segment with Roddy Piper and Chris Jericho(as voted for by the fans). Jericho and Piper talk about Summerslam and they are interrupted by Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero. Dolph runs his mouth and then the Miz interrupts. Miz tells Dolph he can be his guest, and that Piper and Jericho can get the hell ouf ot his ring. Jericho punches Miz and then attacks Ziggler before throwing them both from the ring.
^Four great talkers and Vickie Guerrero. What more could you ask for in a Piper’s Pit segment? I don’t feel like Piper is as outrageous as he once was, but the overall purpose behind these segments is to create some chaos or controversy, and that certainly happened here.
Jericho, Ziggler, and Miz are booked in a triple threat match via twitter by AJ Lee. Ziggler pins Jericho with a zig zag when Vickie Guerrero distracts the ref while Miz taps out to the walls of Jericho.
^I can only imagine what this match could’ve been with another ten minutes added on. It was like watching a battle of egos on the mic in Piper’s Pit and the match was watching a bunch of guys try to one up one another. Great match.
Backstage segment with Eve congratulating Punk on being a new person. Punk says he isn’t a new person.
Eve and Beth Phoenix take on Kaitlyn and Layla. Kaitlyn pins Phoenix on a rollup to get the win.
^I like the variety of female talent, but where’s the push for a Divas match at Summerslam? Kaitlyn is probably one of the most underused talents aside from Natalya. It’d be great to see her capture the title and have a legit run with it.
Cena and Punk take on Show and Bryan. Cena pins DBry using the AA despite Punk refusing to help Cena. Punk saves Cena after the match when Show goes after him. Punk offers Cena a handshake and he refuses it.
^I find it interesting that Punk would be offering a handshake after everything that he’s done over the last few weeks. It makes me wonder if WWE wants us to think Punk is doing the tweener role after all. It comes across as heel more than anything, but I’m not sure where the direction of this is going. Summerslam should be interesting for these three.
Josh Mathews asked Punk what happened out there. Punk said Cena only cared about himself and disrespected him by not shaking his hand and now he has to teach him a lesson at Summerslam.
Damien Sandow goes one on one with Christian. Brodus Clay comes out to distract Sandow. Sandow hits the neckbreaker on Christian and gets the three count.
^This match makes me very happy and frustrates me to no end all at once. Damien Sandow is the rising star who is going to be an amazing World Champ someday, and I’m glad he got this big win. On the flipside, Christian is being jobbed out repeatedly since losing the IC Title, and it’s just wrong for a guy of his talent to be losing matches left and right. What’s even worse is the fact that he is being left off the Summerslam card.
Shawn Michaels is shown looking for Brock Lesnar. He turns around and walks into Lesnar, and then walks away.
Lesnar and Paul Heyman come to the ring. They acknowledge Hunter not being here tonight, and they call out HBK. They call Shawn a coward and he comes out. Triple H then comes out and signs the contract. Lesnar signs it and then jumps out of the ring. Lesnar and Heyman leave.
^Very anti climactic segment here. I was expecting an in-ring brawl between Lesnar and Trips. I was hoping even more for HBK to hit Heyman with the superkick.
Triple H and HBK are show backstage. Shawn tells Hunter he will be in his corner Sunday, but he’s completely on his own in the match. Shawn walks away and Hunter looks pissed.
^Shawn doesn’t seem to have much faith in Hunter, and the egos between the two seem to be clashing again when it comes to “getting the job done” and beating a top star.
Josh Mathews is shown interviewing Big Show and we hear hollering. The cameras rush off and show Lesnar pulling HBK out of a car and beating him up as the cameras go black. They come back from commercial and the car is shown with a smashed windshield but Shawn is nowhere to be found. AJ tells Triple H that Brock took him and dragged him away. Brock carries Shawn into the arena and to the ring. Lesnar delivers the F5 to HBK. He locks HBK’s arm in the submission. Triple H runs out and stops when Heyman tells him Brock will break Shawn’s arm if he comes any further. Brock snaps the arm and jumps out of the ring. Hunter chases Brock away. They stare one another down to close the show while Shawn lays in agony.
^For the lack of build the past couple months, this match finally has some fuel for the fire. It’s been announced that HBK will not be at Summerslam now, but time will tell on that one. This segment was somewhat familiar to ones done in the past, and this one worked out okay. I know this match will go on last Sunday night, so we’ll have to see if these two stars of 2002 can live up to the hype of being a Summerslam main event.
Final Thoughts: The show was loaded with super short matches along with two good matches. The backstage segments were kept very short and effective. The overall show was slightly below average despite the two decent matches near the end of the show. Despite the low grade, I’m still excited for Summerslam! Make sure to check out my top Summerslam matches and watch out for the Smark’s Summerslam predictions coming this weekend. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
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Original Story:
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August 14, 2012
