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Mr. McMahon returns to Raw tonight for a 3 hour special edition. He will open the show at 8pm et with a "Performance Review" of John Laurinaitis's job as the General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown. My first question is, what kayfabe power does Mr. McMahon have? I thought he was relieved of his duties as Chairman of the Board by the Board of Directors. This news was given to him by HHH. HHH then got a vote of no confidence as the COO of Raw and lost his power to John Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis became the acting GM of Raw though still had to have any decisions approved by HHH despite HHH losing his power. Laurinaitis then became the permanent GM of Raw and Smackdown, but now Mr. McMahon is back, apparently with full power, to give John Laurinaitis a performance review and potentially put his job in jeopardy. Does any of this make sense?
Mr. McMahon and John Laurinaitis will open the show tonight at 8pm. If there is one given in WWE, it's that when Raw is 3 hours, the first hour always does a poor rating because people forget the show is 3 hours and don't tune in until 9pm. So I'm not really sure why McMahon is opening the show, though I expect McMahon to be in many segments tonight. My guess is Laurinaitis receives an ultimatum that he must meet during the show and then will receive his final performance review at the end of the show. I expect this to conclude with Laurinaitis being forced to join the Mr. McMahon Kiss My A** Club. Always captivating television.....
No Way Out is this Sunday on PPV. John Cena and The Big Show have been separated for the past two weeks, so we can definitely expect a confrontation between them tonight. We haven't seen them together since Big Show knocked out John Cena backstage. Big Show then went on a tear destroying Brodus Clay, R-Truth, and Kofi Kingston. Cena last week went on a tear pouring BBQ sauce on a naked Michael Cole. Hmmm. Not feeling a ton of excitement or anticipation right now going into their cage match this Sunday.
What we will likely see tonight is some type of tournament or battle royal or beat the clock challenge to determine a new #1 contender for Sheamus's World Heavyweight Title. Alberto Del Rio suffered a concussion last week after being thrown into a metal WWE logo on stage by Sheamus. It is almost certain that Del Rio is out of this Sunday's PPV, so they need to establish a new match. I would say the odds on favorite is either Kane or Ziggler. Kane makes sense since he's been built strong, but he already is in the WWE Title Match with Punk and Bryan. Ziggler would be the best choice from a wrestling standpoint, but he hasn't won a match in what seems like months. We'll see where they go.
AJ was the big focus last week around Punk, Bryan, and Kane. She came out during Punk's match with Kane which distracted Punk. Kane got the win. AJ was then cornered by Kane. Bryan tried to save her. AJ then used puppy eyes to have Kane leave her alone. She seemed surprised this worked. Backstage Josh Mathews interviewed AJ. She said she was a dominant, powerful woman. She seemed to change her character from being naive to being manipulative. I'm not sure I like the direction, but we'll see what happens tonight. Back to Punk/Bryan/Kane, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more they can do unless it turns into all three of them fighting over AJ. God knows we don't need another Kane love angle.
And of course with three hours, we're sure to get a lot of filler, comedy crap. Hopefully it's kept somewhat to a minimum and there is a focus on longer wrestling matches, but we always seem to wish for this and rarely get it. With no NBA Playoffs tonight, WWE has no excuses if they pull a bad rating.
TNA Slammiversary PPV was last night celebrating the 10th anniversary of the company. The show was in Arlington, TX and was almost a legit sellout of 5,500 which was a great crowd. They were hot all night and made TNA legitimately feel like an A promotion, much as they did in London earlier this year. The show was excellent. Two great matches with a lot of other solid wrestling and storylines throughout the show. Here's a quick rundown. I'll have more later this week as we get near the live Impact on Thursday.
- Hulk Hogan opened the show thanking the fans for coming and promising surprises tonight.
- Austin Aries d Samoa Joe to retain the X Division Title. Awesome, awesome match to start the show. Check this one out if you missed it.
- Hernandez d Kid Kash. Good match but honestly didn't know these guys were still in TNA.
- Devon & Garett Bischoff d Robbie E & Robbie T. Devon is a great babyface. Garett sucks.
- Mr. Anderson d RVD & Jeff Hardy to become the #1 contender for the TNA Title. Better match than I expected, but I'm not exactly looking forward to Anderson v Roode this week on Impact.
- James Storm d Crimson in an open challenge. Storm got a good but not great pop for his return. Crimson was kind of funny talking up his undefeated streak that no one cared about, but it's for the best that he lost.
- Austin Aries backstage said he's ready to be the man in TNA. Aries v Roode could be awesome.
- Dixie Carter inducted Sting as the first member of the TNA Hall of Fame.
- Miss Tessmacher d Gail Kim to win the Knockouts Title.
- Joseph Park Esquire d Bully Ray. Park sold that he had no wrestling skills and had never been in a fight. Bully bullied him around. Park got knocked under the ring. Abyss came out (played by someone from the Team 3D School) and chokeslammed Bully through a table. Abyss went back under the ring and Park came back out and got the win with a shocked look on his face. A lot of fun but not a good match.
- Christian Cage announced the #1 moment in TNA history as being Sting's debut. It was clear that Christian was not happy to be there.
- AJ Styles & Kurt Angle d Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian to win the TNA Tag Team Titles. Really great match. Match of the night which is saying something to top Aries/Joe. Catch this match if you missed it. Angle hit a double German suplex on both Daniels and Kaz. AJ hit a springboard shooting star press to the outside to take out Daniels. Angle got the win with the ankle lock on Kaz. Dixie was not involved.
- Bobby Roode d Sting to retain the TNA Heavyweight Title. Kind of a slow match. A lot of stalling in the beginning. Sting locked the Scorpion Death Lock on Roode outside on the announce table. Roode tapped but it didn't count since it was not in the ring. Back in the ring, Roode got a beer bottle. Bryan Hebner took it away, but Roode got another bottle and cracked it over Sting's head. The bottle and rest of the six pack were right in the middle of the ring but Hebner counted the pin anyway, so Roode retained. After the match, Sting beat up Roode around the arena and hit a Scorpion Death Drop off the entrance stage onto a crash pad. Not a great main event.
Overall a really good card that I suggest checking out. TNA kept their momentum rolling with this show.
