Tonight's RAW

Tonight's RAW was filled with major news and action!  Let's start at the beginning, where there were a lot of technical difficulties, through it all was a really good and hilarious R Truth promo, attacking John Cena merchandise, and making his way to a family in the crowd, talking to the youngster, then asking him where his dad was.  His dad was of course right next to him, which was funny, and the fact that both were wearing John Cena shirts also played nicely into the segment.  R Truth asked the father what his son's name was, but before he could answer R Truth said 'let me guess...Little Jimmy?' oh man alive that wa hilarious!  Eventually Cena came out and talked for a bit, and the Main Event was made by the RAW GM, Cena vs R Truth! 

Later in the show we got a fantastic segment with Michael Cole interviewing Alex Riley.  Apparently Riley has some cool entrance music now.  Cole went on and on about everything that Miz did for him, and how he should apoloogise, etc.  The crowd was solidly behind Riley, who eventually attacked Cole, leading of course to an attack from behind by the Miz!  However Miz's advantage was relatively short lived, as A-ri made a comeback and Miz eventually ran away.  Two weeks in a row of Riley owning the Miz!

We had a FANTASTIC Divas Tag Team match as well, featuring The Bellas against Eve and everybody's favoirte Diva, Kelly Kelly!  Kelly is so amazingly awesome, happily she got the win tonight!  The match was great, and unlike last week, no interruption from Kharma, which was also a plus.  This was nideed Kharma's last night on RAW for about a year, as she announced later in the show that she was in fact pregnant.  Why they made her pregnancy part of the storyline is beyond me, it seems rather stupid, just asy she was leavnig due to bullying, that would play into the whole anti-bullying campaign and their movie and all.  But thats the way they went, they went with reality TV.  Eventually the Bellas came out and made some fat jokes, and finally Kong left the ring. 

The Main Event wasn't all that good really, it featured a fair bit of R Truth stalling, and repeatedly rolling out of the ring after Cena would beat on hm for a bit.  Eventually Ron acted like he was leaving, Cena gave chase, only to have Truth attack him and make it back into the ring before the 10 count, something Cena was not able to do.  The winner of the match, Ron 'The Truth' Killings!  A shocking victory for R Truth, granted it wasn't a Title win, but still, he beat the Champ!  Apparently it's already been announced that it will indeed be Cena vs Truth at the next PPV.

So a lot of major action tonight, some truly major developments, and we're well on our way to the next PPV!  Tonight's RAW definitely gets a Thumbs Up from SirGladiator!

Major WWE Divas News

It seems that there is some major good news and bad news, in regard to the WWE Divas.  First the bad news, apparently Kharma, better known as Awesome Kong back when she was in TNA, will be out for 9 months.  While nothing has been officially confirmed at this time, all signs point to the reason being exactly what you'd expect it to be, for a woman who mysteriously disappears for nine months.  Apparently she's scheduled to give an interview on next week's RAW.  She didn't speak much in TNA, and she has never spoken at all in the WWE, so this could be rather unique, possibly even strange, when it happens next week.  Who knows what they'll have her say, as a way to explain her impending extended absence, only time will tell!

On the good news side, it seems they're FINALLY bringing AJ up to the big leagues!  For those of you who saw NXT Season Three, you saw the star of that season, AJ, she was so positive, so energetic, athletic, just awesome.  And even better news, they're putting her back together with fellow NXT Season Three castmate Kaitlyn, and they're doing it Friday!  AJ and Kaitlyn will be teaming together against two other divas in a Tag Team match on Friday Night Smackdown.  For those of you who didn't see NXT Season Three, I don't really know how to describe how amazing AJ and Kaitlyn were together, they had such incredible chemestry, I've never seen two people have as much chemestry as they did, hopefully they still do and you'll get to see for yourself on Friday!

So Kharma on the way out, AJ coming in, its a big Divas News day!  Stay tuned for more news about the Divas, as well as other Wrestlilng news, right here on the Gladiator Blog!

Awesome RAW last night!

Last night's Monday Night RAW was awesome!  We got off to a fast start, because the Champ was indeed in San Antonio!  But before he could say hardly anything, he was interrupted by Ari!  Alex Riley talked briefly, then first introduced a highlight video, of Miz owning Cena (a lot of pre-Wrestlemania footage there, it seemed), and then introduced the Awesome one himself!  Ari and Miz made their way to the ring, where Riley continued talking, at one point taking a hilarious shot at the San Antonio Spurs.  Eventually it was Cena's turn, and he totally owned Riley, before turning his attention to the Miz, noting that he saw fear on the Miz's face, and that on Sunday he would be saying I Quit.  We then got a message from the Anonymous RAW General Manager, which Michael Cole read from his IPad.  The GM decided that since he gave Cena the right to name the I Quit stipulation for Sunday's PPV Main Event, it was only fair that Miz get to name Cena's opponent and stipulation for RAW's Main Event.  Miz spoke for the first time in the segment, to note that while he hasn't decided Cena's opponent or the stipulation yet, he assured Cena that it would in fact be Awesome!  Sadly that wouldn't turn out to be true, but more on that later.

CM Punk vs Kofi Kingston figured to be a rather boring match with Kingston ultimately prevailing, but in fact the match was decent and CM Punk actually, very surprisingly, came out on top!  Does this mean he's signed a new contract?  You'd think so, but I haven't heard anything about that yet.  In any event, after the match CM stated that he was going to do this 'his way' from now on, and that he was going to make every member of Nexus a star both individually and collectively.  Good stuff!

Of course the highlight of the night once again was the awesome Kelly Kelly.  Her opponent last night was Nikki Bella, the Bella Twin who isn't actually the Champion.  A great back and forth match, with Kelly using some kind of unique move, similar to a rollup but cooler, to score the pinfall victory!  After the match the Bellas, angry at Nikki's defeat, double teamed poor Kelly and laid her out, but of course anything a Divas match is over, you know what's going to happen!  That's right, it's Awesome Kong time!  Kharma's music hit, and she made her way to the ring at her usual speed.  However this time, not only do the Bellas not run, but even though Kong completely ignored them, enterting the ring and slowly walking over to Kelly, one of them actually attacked Kong from behind!  This of course was unfathomably dumb, as Kong dealt with her easily.  She (Brie) got away before Kong could give her the Implant Buster, however her sister Nikki wasn't so lucky, she was last night's victim of Kharma's impressive finisher.  After laying Nikki out, she went back over to Kelly, who was STILL hiding in the corner, unwilling or unable to flee.  She looked scared, but even more than that I have to say she looked unbelievably beautiful.  A fact that may not have been lost on Kong, who couldn't bring herself to attack Kelly.  She towered over her, it was clear that she could do anything she wanted, but she simply played with Kelly's hair, then sort of flicked her finger at Kelly's forehead, it was really funny.  Clearly she didn't want to hurt the awesome Kelly!  She then left the ring, having vanquished the Bellas, and left Kelly unharmed.  Is it possible that the WWE, who we know likes to borrow from TNA storyline ideas, could be borrowing from the Winter and Angelina storyline?  Only time will tell!

It seems that Michael Cole has stuck his foot in his mouth, figuratively speaking, as his comments during his 'Contract Signing' segment with Jerry the King Lawler may have cost himself his side-kick!  He insulted Jack Swagger, causing him to walk out on him shortly after Cole announced that his match with Lawler at the PPV would in fact be a 'Kiss My Foot' match.  So the loser will be the one who kisses the winner's foot, and if indeed Cole is Swagger-less for the match, it would seem that Jerry will be the one to have his royal foot kissed, and he will get to keep his Hall of Fame Ring!  Definitely a huge match this Sunday.

In other action, the two lesser Nexus members actually defeated Big Show and Kane in a non-Title match, thanks to interference from Mason Riley.  Another victory for Punk and the Nexus!  Punk and Riley will face Kane and Big Show for the Tag Team Gold this Sunday, at the PPV.  We also learned last night that Randy Orton will be defending his Smackdown Title against Christian in a return match at the PPV also.

Finally we got to the Main Event, and the Miz revealed that the match that Cena would be having would be a No Holds Barred match, and before he could announce the opponent, Jack Swagger came out and attacked Cena from behind!  Miz then announced that Swagger was Cena's opponent.  Swagger dominated a large part of the match, he used a steel chair on Cena a couple times, but despite the major beating that John Cena took, he dug down deep, made the big comeback, and eventually hit the FU then made Swagger tap with the STFU.  Another huge win for the Champ, John Cena!  After the match the Miz 'guaranteed' that he would be announced as the World Champion after his match with Cena on Sunday, stating that he had found a way to make Cena quit that Cena had never seen before.  He then attacked Cena with a pipe, but when he went to hit him a second time Cena was able to knock it out of Miz's hand, and use it on both Miz and Riley!  Cena owned both men, and that was after owning Swagger!  What a night for Cena, he's got a huge amount of momentum heading into the PPV!  I'm curious to see if the Miz indeed does have some kind of trick up his sleeve, I guess all will be revealed on Sunday.  In the meantime, a great RAW last night, it was a lot of fun, and I'm giving it two thumbs up! 

Monday Night Raw

Last night's edition of Monday Night Raw was only so-so.  It opened with the new formerly-Smackdown wrestlers, Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio, and Rey challenging Alberto to a match for the right to face John Cena for the Title.  The Miz interrupted them, and said something about the two of them having a 'Taco Bell Parking Lot' match while he faced Cena.  But if you thought that was a bit racist, well, you hadn't heard from former TNA Champion Ron 'The Truth' Killings yet!  R Truth came down and said he wanted to 'spit some hate', and proceeded to do just that.  He talked for a while, insulted the other three men, then said that 'When an angry black man (that would be him) is talking, everybody should shut up', and that he was going to be the one to face 'That lily white John Cena'.  That would seem to make Miz's later comment about Rey and Del Rio being 'day laborers' pale in comparison, but maybe that depends on your perspective.  Is racism really necessary here on Raw?  I'd certainly like to think not.  But I suppose this is following TNA's lead, as you may know they've recently introduced a group called 'Mexican America', which brings out a Mexican flag, and they say things like they're taking America back for Mexico, etc. just insanely racist and stupid stuff.  It seems the WWE is taking a page out of TNA's playbook, as they have been known to do from time to time, usually on better ideas than this.  However this would not be the last time on this show that the WWE steals a TNA idea, more on that shortly.

The highlight of the show came in the next segment, which featured not only the Bella Twins, one of whom is the current Womens Champion, but also the returning Kelly Kelly!  She had been on Smackdown far too long, its so great that she's back on RAW.  This time it was in a tag match, with Eve as her partner.  After a nice little back and forth match, Kelly Kelly reversed an attempted Bella rollup for one of her own, and a 3 count victory!  After the match, it was time once again for Awesome Kong to come out and flatten somebody!  Once again, as last week, Kelly Kelly sat in the corner in fear as Kong, now 'Kharma' in the WWE, made her way to the ring.  This time she behaved more intelligently, as after Kong got into the ring she eventually slid out of it, keeping her distance from the huge woman.  The Bellas, even smarter still, simply ran away together.  You guessed it, that means that tonight's victim would be Eve!  She charged at Kong, only to be met with a clothesline that basicly knocked her out, while Kong chased Kelly Kelly around for a while.  Of course Kelly, being about a million pounds lighter, was able to win the battle of foot-speed, and get away.  That meant Kong had to settle for giving tonight's Impant-Buster to Eve, and she proceeded to do so.  Another dominant performance for the Two-Time TNA Womens Champion Awesome Kong, now known as Kharma in the WWE.

Now about that 'other' idea that the WWE stole from TNA last night, and believe me it's a doozey.  Michael Cole made the announcement that he was retiring from wrestling undefeated, but Jerry The King Lawler didn't want to hear that, he still wants to get Cole back in the ring!  So he offered first to 'induct Cole into the Hall of Fame himself' if Cole accepts his challenge (one wonders how Jerry would have the authority to decide who gets into the Hall of Fame, especially people who obviously aren't Hall of Famers, but wait, it gets better), he also offered to put on the line....HIS HALL OF FAME RING!!!!  Oh baby, you may have thought the days of Hall of Fame Ring storylines were over, but you would be WRONG!  Of course the challenge was eventually accepted, and now its going to be Cole vs Lawler once again, and Jerry's Hall of Fame Ring is on the line!  Any chance the WWE might actually go a step futher than TNA, and instead of simply 'suggesting' that the ring gives you Super Powers, maybe actually have lightning shoot out of it or something, special effects style?  We can only hope :) .

In the Main Event, it was Miz vs Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio for the #1 Contendership.  A good solid match, at the end we saw Alex Riley come down and interfere, pulling Rey off Del Rio following a 619 and top rope dive onto Del Rio, saving him from being pinned and allowing Miz to roll Rey up for a 3 count, and another shot at the Title!  John Cena then came down and announced that his Title match with the Miz at the PPV would in fact be....an I Quit Match!  His music played as he exited triumphantly, indeed the idea of John Cena saying I Quit does seem highly unlikely, so a HUGE advantage for Cena courtesy of this Stipulation! 

So all in all a so-so episode of RAW.   I thought the race stuff was in poor taste (to say the least), and I certainly didn't expect to see the WWE copying TNA so blatantly (but I guess with so many former TNA Superstars on the show it was only a matter of time), but there was still a fair amount of fun to be had last night also.  Its always awesome to see Kelly Kelly in action, its so great she's back on Raw.  It was good to see the Miz back in the Main Event, not just last night but at the PPV also.  After all, he's the Miz, and he's Awesome!  Or so I keep hearing anyway :) .  Definitely looking forward to seeing him continue his feud with John Cena, and I can't wait to find out who Kharma goes after next week!  No doubt Kelly Kelly will be in her sights again, can she keep escaping the extra-large woman's grasp?  We'll just have to tune in and find out!  Feel free to comment, or leave a question, or even both!  Thanks everybody!