Over the last few weeks, the group now known as Nexus has been reeking havoc on the WWE. Attacks on the champion, general manager, and Raw locker room made an impact on everyone around the WWE, but last week topped every prior attack. The last image on Raw last week was Nexus leaving a beaten and fallen Mr. McMahon in the middle of the ring. That vicious attack both ended Raw on a sour note and without any headway made in regards to the upcoming Money In the Bank pay per view. Would this week provide more answers? Will Nexus attack again? Let's check it out.
The show opened with everyone's favorite pale avenger, Sheamus. He is also known as the man who continues to wow the WWE universe each and every week with his progress as a heel. Stealing John Cena's catchphrase garnered him a lot of heat, as did his admitted hatred for all things Cena. Of course, all the insults and copyright infringement prompted Cena to enter the building to overwhelming cheers. It's amazing how a hated heel can make a face who gets a mixed reaction that much more likeable.
Cena was actually quite entertaining on this night, as he first asked Sheamus to join him in the fight against Nexus. This was not to be, as the still anonymous GM informed Michael Cole that if anyone from Nexus touched someone from the Raw roster, they would be fired, and if a Raw roster member touched someone from Nexus, he or she would be suspended. Remember those words, they will come in handy later.
After having his plans dashed, Cena and the rest of the WWE universe found out that Cena would NOT face Sheamus on that night, as Mark Henry would do those honors. This caused Cena to utter the line of the night, "the internet is ruining my life!" Of course, this is a direct shot at internet wrestling fans, who constantly hate on Cena for his cheesiness in the PG environment and repetitive moveset. In the end, Cena got his wish, and WILL face Sheamus for the WWE title at Money in the Bank inside a steel cage. This stipulation was added to keep Nexus out, which makes a lot of sense since the point of the match is to climb out of the cage, so it would be impossible for 7 grown men to climb into the cage to cause mayhem. This is precisely why I do not like themed pay per views. The logical choice for match stipulation would be Hell in a Cell to keep interlopers out, but since that concept is an entire pay per view, it can no longer be inserted at will. I will try and suspend my disbelief at Money in the Bank, but it will be hard for me to believe that no one can interfere because a cage with an open top surrounds the ring.
When I write these reviews, what often separates good shows from average or bad shows is the amount of fodder time. What I mean is, sometimes episodes have segments that make you wonder "why in the world is this part of the show?" This episode did a nice job of making almost every interview, segment, or match part of some larger story that is either progressing or beginning. The start of this trend began with what I first thought was an awful segment. Upon a few minutes of letting it sink in though, I realized its greater purpose. An apparent match between the Usos and Harts was scheduled, but the Usos attacked before the Harts made it to the ring and left the Harts laying. The segment ended with Tamina, who is still incredibly ugly, hitting the superfly splash on Natalya. This makes fans want to see the inevitable title match even more, so it definitely did its job, but I'm also starting to think that Natalya should probably win the Divas title off of Alicia Fox to feud with Tamina. This would be a great way to further the whole family fued.
R-Truth cut a promo about Nexus after that, and this was one of the few "eh" segments of the night. I'm glad that all different superstars are speaking out against Nexus, but I dont' think Truth is the guy to be the spokesman. He's just not a very good mic worker.
The next segment was better, although some "wrestling purists" probably threw it out before it began. Santno Marella had a match against Koslov where the stipulation was that if Santino won, Koslov would become his tag team partner. To those who have been watching, it's been leaning towards this happening, but the way it went down actually worked better than the predictable result. Koslov beat Santino and toyed with him after, showing that he couldn't stand. Koslov was off the hook, but when his mentor, William Regal went to the ring to beat up Santino, Koslov came to his rescue. Koslov has been visibly amused by Santino, so it makes a lot of sense for him to choose to be Santino's friend and partner rather than forcing him into it. I like where this is going, and it adds a face team to the tag team scene who, despite being a comedy act, can certainly go in the ring with Koslov leading the charge.
I was quite bemused by the next segment, as it seems that Ranjin Singh has turned on The Great Khali. I'm not sure where this is going, but I hope somewhere that doesn't waste valualbe television and pay per view time on poor Khali matches. Leave him in mid card comedy duty where he belongs!
After all these developing storylines, we finally get to something that directly impacts the upcoming Pay Per View. Guest host Rob Zombie comes out to announce the 8 participants for the Money in the Bank match. They are Randy Orton, R-Truth, John Morison, Miz, Chris Jericho, Ted Dibiase, Evan Bourne, and Edge. As he read Edge's name, bitter memories came up, as Zombie used to do Edge's theme music when Edge was a face. This was back in 2004, so any fans from back then were probably anticipating this encounter like myself. Unfortunately, it was done via titantron appearance from Edge, which took a lot of excitement out of it. The promo was pretty good though, and reminded us that Edge was the first Money in the Bank winner, so he should be feared in the match. Solid segment, which ended with the GM announcing that the faces will face the heels from the MITB match in an 8 man "mega match" at the end of the night. For my thoughts on the participants in this match, see the show preview days before the pay per view.
The hour one main event was Mark Henry vs. Sheamus, and it wasn't so great. No offense to Mark Henry, but I just couldn't get into this match. Sheamus won of course, and it wasn't a terrible match, but with the result never in doubt in my mind, I just couldn't get excited about this one.
Without their leader (who is "arguing their case to WWE management in Stamford), Nexus is interviewed by Josh Matthews. Luckily, whoever wrote the segment was smart and let only Michael Tarver speak. He is the guy who can get them over as heels best on the mic and he did a great job, saying that even though they can't touch superstars, they can still make an impact. It was still up in the air what that meant, but within 5 minutes of that statement, it became abundantly clear.
It might have seemed odd that the WWE was using precious airtime to honor Ricky Steamboat for his DVD release. It would seem even odder that other legends were there to honor him when such individuals should have done so a year ago at Ricky's hall of fame induction. Thus, when I saw this unfold on my television screen, I was both excited to see legends of the business and skeptical that this was a setup for something bigger. The latter certainly turned out to be true, as Nexus struck, attacking the legends with no fear of punishment since they are not Raw superstars. This attack was actually really well done, as Nexus grabbed the legends one by one to gain an advantage until they finished with an assault on The Dragon. Man, do I love the expresion Justin Gabriel has as he callously hits the 450 splash in his victims. As long as he doesn't talk, he's got the heel look down. Excellent segment despite the absence of their leader. More on that later.
Next was a divas match but honestly, it was the one segment that did absolutely nothing. It was the same 4 divas in a tag match, and the champ got the pin. I think creative said "we don't know what kind of story we're going to try with the divas, but we still have to get them on TV......throw them in a tag!" There's nothing else to say, it was filler.
Even with that filler match, it was about 10:35 when the intros for the main event started. There were 8 of them, so it did take a while, but we got plenty of time for a very solid main event. Basically everyone in the match got to show off a bit of what they have to offer in the win, and the end came with the crowd pleaser, an RKO from Orton on Ted Dibiase as both got tagged in. It was an abrupt ending to a solid match, but one the fans certainly enjoyed. I personally dug it as I think it was fitting that Dibiase took a quick pinfall as he's the least deserving of being in the match.
After the match, the participants all battled to get the fake MITB briefcase, and again, it was Orton who stood tall atop the ladder at the end. As much as Orton is the big star in the match and the big storyline going in revolves around Orton and Edge, I feel like the briefcase would be better served in the hands of someone who has never risen to main event status. We'll see how it plays out.
As I stated earlier, what separates a good show from an average one is the segments that feature enhancement talent. If those segments have purpose and give viewers secondary reasons to watch the show, the show was a success. Tonight's show certainly did that, as secondary stories like Santino/Koslov, the tag team feud, and Khali's split from Ranjin Singh are stories worth following as their builds are pretty good at this point. Couple that with a huge Money in the Bank match developing, an ongoing Cena/Sheamus feud and the showstealer that is The Nexus and you have the formula for wonderful episodic TV. I'm excited to see how all these stories play out over the next few weeks and months.
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