It’s the Slammy Awards edition of the Raw Deal. My 6th annual WWE Johnny Awards are going to be posted on December 20 or one of those dates around that day. Before it begins, go check out the new website of my banner making friend Melo Man called prowrestlinglinks.com. It’s got links to a bunch of different wrestling sites and podcasts on it. Bookmark it because it’s all in one place. Simple and effective.
Live from Greenville, South Carolina this is the Raw Deal for episode #1124. Follow me on Twitter @johnreport.
The opening video package told us that John Cena would face Big Show as I let out a big groan at the thought of watching that match again. When Michael Cole said it was a “huge” main event I just groaned again.
Ring announcer Lilian Garcia welcomed Jerry Lawler to the stage. There’s a podium on the side of the Raw stage with giant Slammy Awards behind them. Lawler introduced actor and producer Seth Green as the host of the 2014 Slammy Awards. Cole said it was “absolutely incredible” that they got Seth Green. A bit of a reach, Mikey.
Seth received a decent ovation from the crowd. He said he was excited to be there. Green said this is your award show because you (the fans) will be the ones to vote. Seth mentioned matches he was excited about, but then he was cut off by The Miz and Damien Mizdow.
The Miz wondered why Seth didn’t visit him in his dressing room while Mizdow was mimicking Miz during the whole thing. He called himself the A-Lister that Seth Green needs. Fans were chanting for “Mizdow” as Green said that Mizdow was the A-Lister. Miz said Sandow is not awesome as Miz said this next award is named after him.
“This is Awesome” Moment Of Year Slammy Award Nominees: A video package aired highlighting the nominees. The nominees are Daniel Bryan occupy Raw, Stephanie McMahon getting arrested, The Authority loses at Survivor Series thanks to Sting and the start of WrestleMania 30 with Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and The Rock. Fans could vote on the WWE App.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (w/Joey Mercury & Jamie Noble)
Ziggler hit a dropkick while Rollins was on the apron, so they went to break about one minute into the match.
(Commercial)
Back from break, Rollins was in control of the action with a boot to the face followed by a headlock. Ziggler did a jawbreaker to break free while Rollins missed a splash leading to a neckbreaker by Ziggler. The announcers talked about how Sting won things for Team Cena and then they put over Ziggler for winning at Survivor Series. So what is it? I guess it’s both. Ziggler hit an impressive DDT for two. Rollins came back with a kick to the face. Ziggler gave Rollins a backdrop off the top rope. Noble jumped on the apron while Mercury shoved Ziggler off the top and then Rollins hit the Curb Stomp for the win after eight minutes.
Winner by pinfall: Seth Rollins
Analysis: *** Two of the best in-ring performers in WWE and they only got eight minutes, three minutes of which were not shown on television. They should get 15 minutes. Instead, it was a short match with predictable booking due to heel interference.
Green read the winner of the award.
“This Is Awesome” Moment Of The Year Slammy Winner: Sting
Green said Sting wasn’t there, which led to boos. Of course he’s not there. What a prestigious award! Rollins showed up on the stage after his win, said “back off kid” even though Seth Green is 40 years old (I looked it up). Seth’s short, though, so I guess the kid thing works. I don’t know. Anyway, Rollins stole the award saying Sting was solely responsible for putting The Authority out of power. Rollins said he was accepting the award on behalf of Sting.
Analysis: I laughed when the crowd booed. I don’t blame them.
The New Day trio showed up for a match. They expend a lot of energy during the entrance. The crowd barely reacted to them.
(Commercial)
There was a graphic showing Slammy Awards handed out earlier:
Insult of the Year: The Rock insulting Rusev and Lana
Tag Team of the Year: The Usos
Breakout Star of the Year: Dean Ambrose
Hashtag of the Year: #RKOOuttaNowhere
Fan Participation Award: “You Sold Out” for Seth Rollins
Analysis: All of those choices made sense to me.
Kofi Kingston (w/Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. Stardust (w/Goldust)
Kofi missed a cross body block, so Stardust nailed a chop off the ropes. Chinlock by Stardust to build heat because it’s the Slammys and that means we get short matches all night long. Kofi hit headscissors, then got his boot up and hit a nice dropkick. Kofi yelled “New Day” before hitting the Boom Drop. Kofi hit a cross body block off the top rope for the pin on Stardust. The match went three minutes.
Winner by pinfall: Kofi Kingston
Analysis: ** It’s a night of short matches. Get used to it. You don’t see a cross body block winning matches that often although Kofi jumped really high when he hit it.
The presenter for Surprise Return of the Year was John Laurinaitis. JBL reacted to it in an over the top way. King told him to not have a stroke and JBL said: “I won’t have a stroke King, that’s your gimmick.” Wow. Technically it was a heart attack. Laurinaitis said that the people have spoken and they want People Power. The fans booed although some cheered. He said it’s time to bring back Big Johnny.
Surprise Return of The Year Nominees: The nominees for this one are the return of Hulk Hogan, Batista’s return after four years, The Rock’s surprise appearance on Raw to confront Rusev & Lana and The Ultimate Warrior’s WWE return for WrestleMania 30, the Hall of Fame and Raw. Watching those Warrior clips is sad knowing he died the day after he was on Raw. The return was great, but it was a tragic end. His speech about the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior running forever was very memorable.
The announce team plugged the WWE App. Been a while since they showed us the demo for it. Thanks nerds. I have it. I barely look at it.
(Commercial)
John Laurinaitis read the winner for the surprise return award.
Surprise Return of the Year Slammy Winner: The Ultimate Warrior
They showed images of Warrior, who passed away in April. It was a good way of doing it without having somebody come on the stage to accept it.
Backstage, Seth Rollins was congratulated by J&J for his win. Paul Heyman showed up. Heyman said he expected a clean sweep of the Slammys for his client Lesnar. Rollins told J&J to leave. Heyman mentioned Seth’s match against John Cena at TLC on Sunday. Rollins wondered if he’ll get a WWE Title shot at Brock Lesnar after he beats Cena. He added that Lesnar and Heyman wouldn’t see it coming if Rollins decided to cash in. Heyman knew that Rollins was the future since he hit a Curb Stomp on Lesnar. Heyman told Rollins that if he wants to be recognized as the future then he has to make sure that Cena is fully entrenched in the past. Rollins just stood there while Heyman left.
Analysis: It was Heyman’s way of motivating Rollins while also putting across the idea that maybe Lesnar doesn’t want to face Cena. It was never made clear that Rollins would get a title shot if he beat Cena.
The NXT Divas Champion Charlotte made her Raw debut wearing the NXT Women’s Title around her waist. They mentioned she was Ric Flair’s daughter. There was a brief video package about her. Charlotte said she’s genetically superior to everybody else.
(Commercial)
Prior to the match, they plugged the NXT Takeover: R Evolution show on WWE Network this Thursday. It’s going to be awesome. The show is headlined by Adrian Neville defending the NXT Title against Seth Rollins, which should be a classic.
Natalya (w/Tyson Kidd) vs. Charlotte
Charlotte did a “Woo” in Natalya’s face. If you watch NXT, she really doesn’t do a “Woo” often. Natalya went on her back, so Charlotte came back with a jawbreaker. Cole mentioned they had met before and JBL said they had an incredible match where Charlotte won the NXT Title. That was in May. Probably the best Divas match in WWE history. Natalya nailed a chop to knock down Natalya a couple of times. She doesn’t do chops in NXT much at all. Natalya wanted a Sharpshooter, but Charlotte fought out of it with an attempted Figure Four Leglock. Natalya countered with an inside cradle (not the ROLLUP OF DEATH) for the win after 3 minutes.
Winner by pinfall: Natalya
Post match, Natalya celebrated on the turnbuckle. Tyson jumped in front of her to steal the spotlight. He’s the man.
Analysis: * I didn’t watch the show live, but after it was over I got a lot of tweets from people complaining about this finish. Many of them were wondering why would Charlotte be booked to lose in a short match during her first time on Raw. It’s a good point. They should have put her over although I admit I’m a huge Natalya fan. From WWE’s point of view, they probably think that a NXT “rookie” shouldn’t beat a regular diva in her debut. I don’t agree with that booking, though. They could have put Emma or Summer Rae or somebody else out there for Charlotte to beat. The announcers spent the match talking about how great Charlotte was, so book her that way! Instead, she lost in three minutes and looked like a loser. Weird.
The presenter for the “OMG Shocking Moment of the Year” was Santino. He had the Cobra snake sleeve on his hand. He said “omg” as a word instead of O-M-G because he’s funny like that. He said he had a shocking moment when he said he saw Luke Harper taking a shower, then said he watches the diva shower and then awkwardly said he doesn’t watch people shower. It really wasn’t that funny.
OMG Shocking Moment of The Year Nominees: The nominees are Seth Rollins turning on The Shield to join The Authority, Nikki Bella turning on her sister Brie at SummerSlam, Bray Wyatt getting a bunch of kids to sing creepy songs towards John Cena and Brock Lesnar beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 to conquer the streak.
(Commercial)
The main event of Raw is John Cena vs. Big Show. JBL: “This is like a WrestleMania match, Maggle.” Yeah it was at WrestleMania 20, which was 10 years ago. They were also in the same WrestleMania match at WrestleMania 25 as well as dozens of other matches. Enough already.
Santino read the name of the winner.
OMG Shocking Moment of the Year Slammy Winner: Brock Lesnar defeats The Undertaker at WrestleMania
Paul Heyman showed up to accept the award because Brock Lesnar wasn’t there like usual. Heyman said he’s the one behind the one in 21-1 and he earned that distinction when The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania was conquered by his client Brock Lesnar. Then he left.
Analysis: Short speech. Good choice for the winner. Lesnar was originally booked for this show although that changed and he’ll be there next week apparently. His appearance next week was not advertised on the show, so it will be more of a surprise segment.
Bray Wyatt entered for a promo to hype up his TLC match against Dean Ambrose in a TLC Match on Sunday.
The lights were dimmed in the ring while Wyatt did a promo. He said he’ll never forget the first time that he saw her – she was sitting in that rocking chair underneath the tree. “That was her chair.” That led to the video package from last week’s Raw when Ambrose destroyed the rocking chair. Then there was a video of Wyatt attacking Ambrose on Smackdown by using a steel chair to the throat. Ambrose did a stretcher job.
Wyatt wonders if that shocks or frightens anybody. Wyatt said he’s a monster that despises every last one of us. He said that if you get too close to him, he will burn you. Wyatt said that Ambrose deserves everything that is coming to him. Wyatt said: “Tables, Ladders & Chairs.” He said it three times.
Sirens started up as an ambulance backed into the ring. It was not Scott Steiner. It was Dean Ambrose emerging from a smoky ambulance. Ambrose’s music started to play. He brought out a table, ladder and chair from the ambulance. Ambrose took off the neckbrace he was wearing.
Ambrose went down to the ring. He slowed down Wyatt using a ladder to knock him down. Ambrose set up a table in the ring. Wyatt rolled out of the ring. I hate that. People stop being aggressive as soon as the guy leaves the ring? If you really want to fight, you should chase him. When Wyatt stood on the apron, Ambrose threw a chair at him. Cole: “What is wrong with Ambrose?” Oh I don’t know, maybe the fact that Wyatt tried to crush his throat! He’s a babyface getting revenge. Simple story. Ambrose said that when it’s Tables, Ladders & Chairs, he becomes the monster and he’s going to eat Wyatt alive.
Analysis: My favorite thing about that was Wyatt saying he hates the fans. We don’t have enough heels that are pure evil. Wyatt can be that guy. Ambrose did a good job of showing the babyface fire. I don’t really get Cole’s comments. I’m not sure who I’m picking for the match. Most likely I’m going with Ambrose although it’s a tough call.
Slammy host Seth Green was at the podium again. He introduced Jerry Lawler to present the Diva of the Year. Lawler said it was his favorite award of the year for diva of the year.
Analysis: They must have run out of people to present an award if they had to get a guy regularly on Raw to present an award. Budget cuts, I guess.
Diva Of The Year Nominees: Brie Bella was a nominee and they showed all of her babyface moments. Her awful heel turn was not mentioned. Of course it wasn’t. The other nominees were Paige, AJ Lee and current Divas Champion Nikki Bella.
(Commercial)
Lawler was there to announce the winner. He said that the winner is him because the queen of the ring gets a hug from the King. The four divas were standing beside each other as Titus O’Neil showed up in a suit for some reason. AJ Lee was announced as the winner. She avoided a regular hug from Lawler.
Diva of the Year Slammy Winner: AJ Lee
AJ said that three years ago she would redefine the word “diva” and that she has done that. No reaction at all. She said you can be a nerd or tomboy and still be the longest reigning Divas Champion of all time. She hopes that next year maybe this award will be won by Bailey, Sasha, Charlotte, Emma or Paige. She said she’s not done being the queen and Sunday she’ll take back the Divas Title.
Analysis: There was barely a reaction for her speech. The part where she said she’s not done being the queen sounds like she is sticking around for a while although I don’t expect her to win on Sunday. It was weird hearing her say she hopes somebody else wins next year. Cue the speculation that she may not be around for too long since her husband CM Punk is now in UFC.
John Cena was interviewed by the lovely Renee Young. He mentioned Vince McMahon’s interview on WWE Network last week. He did a basic promo ripping on Big Show saying he was The Authority’s puppet. Cena mentioned on Sunday he’s in an unpredictable match because it’s just a Tables Match. He told Rollins he couldn’t pin him without Big Show and he isn’t man enough to make Cena tap out. Cena said if Rollins steps up then he has to think about stepping down. Cena: “Step up or step aside.” He said he was going to put Rollins through a table on Sunday.
Analysis: It was a mostly serious promo from Cena, which was the right tone. He’ll win on Sunday. Why? Because he’s John Cena. That’s why.
Erick Rowan entered for a match.
(Commercial)
Rowan faces Big Show in a Stairs Match. Luke Harper is his opponent, so he brought out a ladder to ringside to promote his Ladder Match against Dolph Ziggler at TLC.
Erick Rowan vs. Luke Harper
They are doing this match with absolutely no build at all? That’s bad. Harper’s IC Title is not on the line. Harper hit a dropkick as the announcers talked about how smart Rowan is, which is his new gimmick. Harper hit a superkick for two. Rowan came back with clotheslines, then a corner splash and a full nelson slam for two. They went outside the ring. Harper hit Rowan with the ladder, so he was disqualified after two minutes.
Winner by disqualification: Erick Rowan
Analysis: * The matches at the Slammys don’t matter at all. This was proof of that. Brutal booking to even do this match and then have a finish like that where you just piss off the viewer by how poorly it ended. These guys were buddies for over a year and then they do this without any build.
Post match, Harper ran off the steps and Rowan hit a forearm shot to the face. Rowan dropped Harper onto the top of the steel stairs. Rowan brought the stairs into the ring. Rowan nailed Harper in the face with the stairs, which knocked Harper out of the ring.
Analysis: It was a segment done to get Rowan his heat back. It was fine, but nothing special.
Jimmy and Jey Uso walked up to Naomi backstage. Jey left while Jimmy talked to his wife. Jimmy was happy about winning a Slammy for Tag Team of the Year. Naomi talked to Miz’s agent while Jimmy complained that Miz is trying to interfere in their lives because of the tag team champions. Naomi said she’s going to Hollywood to meet with this agent. Jimmy said he’s going too because he doesn’t trust Miz. She wondered if he trusted her. He said he did, but she left upset.
Analysis: It’s WWE. They love booking couples that have problems.
Adam Rose and his party posse with The Bunny were there to presented LOL Moment of the Year.
LOL Moment of the Year Nominees: The nominees are Mr. T thanking his mom too much at the Hall of Fame, the WeeLC match between Hornswoggle & El Torito, Damien Mizdow as the stunt double and Vickie Guerrero tossing Stephanie McMahon into the mud pit.
(Commercial)
Here are some other Slammy Awards that were awarded earlier.
Faction of the Year: The Shield
Rivalry of the Year: Daniel Bryan vs. The Authority
Raw Guest Star of the Year: Hugh Jackman
Best Twitter Handle: Dolph Ziggler (@HeelZiggler)
Best Couple of the Year: Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella
Those are all fine choices. They should have handed out Rivalry of the Year on the show, though. Not only would it be nice to see Daniel Bryan fire up the crowd, but the best feud should be considered a major deal.
LOL Moment of the Year Slammy Award Winner: Damien Mizdow
The Miz grabbed the award and said he made us happy because he’s an actor. Fans were chanting “We Want Mizdow” so Miz said the fans were chanting “We Want Miznow” instead. Miz said someone doesn’t get the credit they deserve. He looked at Mizdow as he said it. Then he said “the moneymaker” at the end. I was hoping for Maryse!
Analysis: The voting got that one right. Funny speech by Miz with the Miznow thing. It made me think of Mr. Burns wondering if people were chanting “boo” or “boo-urns.” Hans Moleman was chanting Boo-urns.
Lana and Rusev came out for a promo. They ripped on the “Real Americans” saying they were a LOL moment. Jack Swagger showed up on the stage. He said in America there’s a saying that what goes around comes around. He mentioned Rusev broke Zeb’s leg, so Swagger is going to break Rusev’s ankle.
Rusev attacked him at ringside by tossing Swagger into the barricade. Swagger came back quickly with a Patriot Lock outside the ring. Rusev was screaming in pain. Refs came out to hold Swagger back while the fans chant “We The People” for it.
Analysis: This feud has returned whether we like it or not. That was a good segment. I like their matches although they had enough matches that we really don’t need more. At least there was a reason for it with Rusev injuring Colter.
Six man tag up next.
(Commercial)
The Kickoff match at TLC is The New Day vs. Gold & Stardust.
Seth Green joined the commentary team for this next match.
The Usos & Ryback vs. The Miz, Damien Mizdow & Kane
Ryback hit a splash and then a shoulder tackle on Kane. The announcers kept arguing with each other asking Seth about jokes. Kane hit an uppercut shot on Jey Uso, so the heels took over while Miz tagged in. Fans chanted “We Want Mizdow” while Mizdow mimicked the in-ring actions of The Miz. The announcing during this match was so bad. Mizdow mimicked The Miz and the crowd cheered Mizdow. Jey hit some chops on Miz and Mizodow went into the ring to mimic it. Then Jey hit a suplex on Miz, so Miz did it as the crowd laughed. Miz got sent to the floor, so Mizdow jumped over the top to the floor for the vintage floor to commercial break.
(Commercial)
During the break, Ryback hit a delayed suplex on Miz so Mizdow stood up against the ropes to mimic it. Anyway, Miz was still in control of Jey in the ring. Miz did a bad looking kip up like Shawn Michaels except it didn’t look great. JBL said it was like Michaels and Cole laughed saying it was more like “Sean Coulthard” which is a bit of a wink-wink thing because his real name is Michael Sean Coulthard.
Hot tag to Ryback, who opened up on Miz with a Gorilla Press and then a spinebuster for two after Kane broke it up. The Usos hit double superkicks on Kane. Jey took out Kane with a dive. Jimmy stared at Miz, so Miz ducked and Jimmy went over the top to the floor. Ryback hit the Meat Hook Clothesline on Miz (Mizdow fell off the apron at that) and then Shellshock by Ryback won it after 10 minutes.
Winners by pinfall: The Usos & Ryback
Post match, Seth tried to raise Ryback’s hand, but he sold it like he was too much of a wimp to do it. The Usos put Seth on their shoulders as the faces celebrated.
Analysis: **1/2 It was a very basic tag team match. The commentary team was brutal during this match with Seth Green out there with him. I have zero interest in Ryback vs. Kane by the way. Please keep it short.
There were clips of the 1986 Slammy Awards. Roddy Piper’s trophy broke. Poor guy. It’s not like WWE did Slammy Awards every year. They totally ignored them for a long time until making them an annual show in 2008.
Ricky Steamboat appeared to present Match of the Year. He mentioned he had some matches of the year with Ric Flair (not in WWE) and with Randy Savage (WrestleMania 3). He said it takes a lot to have a great match, but these four top the list.
Match of the Year Nominees: Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista at WrestleMania 30, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt Last Man Standing at Payback, The Shield vs. Evolution at Extreme Rules and Team Cena vs. Team Authority at Survivor Series with Sting showing up to help Ziggler win it for Cena’s team.
Analysis: I don’t agree with all the nominees. When I write my Johnny Awards on December 20 you’ll know my choice (I’m not spoiling it), but I think they missed out on some great matches. That Cena/Wyatt match wouldn’t be in my top four. I did like the other three a lot although not saying they would be in my top four either. Honestly, it’s a tough choice. Some years there’s one that really stands out. Not this year.
AJ Lee showed up with her Slammy for a match.
(Commercial)
Next week is WWE Week on USA Network with Raw on Monday, live Smackdown on Tuesday and Tribute to the Troops on Wednesday, which is being taped this Tuesday.
Ricky Steamboat read the winner of the Match of the Year award.
Match of the Year Slammy Award Winner: Team Cena vs. Team Authority at Survivor Series
I guess fans have short memories. Dolph Ziggler came out to accept the award for Cena’s team since he was the sole survivor. Ziggler said they’re going to build on that and he thanked the fans for supporting him. He was amazed that Sting came out. Ziggler said everything he could to entertain each and every one of the fans.
Analysis: That was some quality sucking up right there although when you consider Ziggler was not being used right last year at this time there’s a lot of truth in that. The fans really love the guy.
AJ Lee vs. Summer Rae
The crowd was dead for this, so we could easily hear Summer yelling “who cares” about diva of the year. Summer hit a faceplant followed by a spin kick for two. Summer applied a headlocks and did more “diva of the year” yelling to mock her. After a pinfall attempt, another headlock and I think there was a “CM Punk” chant. AJ hit the Black Widow submission for the win after three minutes.
Winner by submission: AJ Lee
Analysis: 1/2* Typical short divas match. AJ’s only offense was the finish. Can somebody remind me how AJ has re-defined a diva? The crowd was dead for her and they chant her husband’s name. I liked her in the past, but she has become such a stale performer that has been robbed of everything that made her cool because she’s just a boring babyface now.
Rob Van Dam showed up the Extreme Moment of the Year Slammy award. He said there’s nobody better to give out this award than Rob (thumb point) Van (thumb point) Dam.
Extreme Moment of the Year Nominees: Brock Lesnar destroying John Cena at SummerSlam for the WWE Title, Kane attacking Daniel Bryan with three Tombstone piledrivers, Chris Jericho hitting a cross body block off the steel cage onto Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins giving Dean Ambrose a Curb Stomp through cinderblocks.
Analysis: The slow motion replay of Jericho’s dive was great. The Rollins/Ambrose spot was done to give Ambrose five weeks off to film a movie.
(Commercial)
Rob Van Dam read the award winner.
Extreme Moment of the Year Slammy Award: Chris Jericho cross body block on Bray Wyatt
Jericho isn’t there. Instead, we get Fandango with Rosa Mendes to walk on the stage. Rosa gave Fandango a kiss when they walked out. Fandango said he beat Chris Jericho at his debut match at WrestleMania. Then he did a Jericho and aid you will never, ever, everrrrrrrr forget the name Fandango.
Analysis: They love giving awards to people that aren’t there. It must be a theme of the night.
Santa Mick Foley was reading the 30 Years of WrestleMania book. He did a shoutout to “Frank from Chicago” and told him to “stop clowning around.” That’s a reference to my good friend Frank the Clown, who is close with Mick’s daughter Noelle, who is dressed like an elf. This was a WWEShop plug. Santa plugged WWEShop.com and said they should put a Slammy Award on a sleigh for Lima, Ohio (Al Snow). He had a Randy Savage DVD for Scotty from Orlando (Scotty 2 Hotty perhaps). They plugged WWEShop at the end of it.
There was a replay of Big Show turning on Cena at Survivor Series.
Big Show was interviewed by Renee Young. He said Cena will make a mistake by stepping into the ring with Show. He talked about how Erick Rowan was out of his league at Survivor Series.
Analysis: I’m so tired of writing about Big Show vs. John Cena.
More Slammy Awards handed out earlier.
Double Cross of the Year: Seth Rollins betrays The Shield
Animal of the Year: The Bunny (What a coveted award!)
Best Actor: The Rock
NXT Super of the Year: Sami Zayn (Good choice!)
Anti-Gravity Moment of the Year: Seth Rollins dives off the balcony
Analysis: Rollins won a lot huh? Good. He deserves it. Heels don’t usually win these things.
Here’s Booker T to present Superstar of the Year. I guess Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Steve Austin were busy. No offense, Booker.
Superstar of the Year Nominees: Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose, Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, John Cena and Seth Rollins.
Analysis: It really doesn’t matter, but leaving Randy Orton off of this is ridiculous. He was the WWE Champion that headlined WrestleMania and had a lot of great performances. It’s probably just WWE’s way of having us forget about him so his return in a week or two is treated as a surprise.
(Commercial)
Next Monday on Raw it’s “Raw is Jericho” with Chris Jericho in charge of the show. I’m fine with that.
Booker read the card for the award.
Superstar of the Year Slammy Winner: Roman Reigns
Roman said this isn’t satellite – this is the real deal here. Roman said it’s not the brass ring, but it’s pretty damn good and he loves. He said it’s a step in the right direction. Roman said speaking of steps, he’s going to step up. He didn’t care if it was Lesnar, Cena, Triple H or Vince McMahon himself, he’s going to step up and you can believe…that.
Analysis: This is the part of the show where people start to question the legitimacy of the voting. With all due respect to Reigns, it seems very unlikely that he would get the most votes in something like this. What we know is WWE really wants Roman to be their “next big thing” so this was their way of really putting him over to make him across like the biggest star that there is. Do you really think fans voted for a guy that has been out since September? I doubt it. Don’t expect WWE to admit it either. Roman is winning the Royal Rumble, by the way. I said it the day of this year’s Rumble when he was booked so strong. I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen. I don’t care that they fixed it. I just don’t think fans should be upset about it. It’s their show. They do what they want.
John Cena made his entrance.
(Commercial)
Big Show made his entrance and there was another replay of Show turning on Cena at Survivor Series.
John Cena vs. Big Show
Show was aggressive early as I had flashbacks of all the other matches these two have hand and I was bored for all of those ones too. Show hid a side slam for two. Show went for a Chokeslam, but Cena fought out of it and applied a sleeper. Cena’s sleeper looks terrible, by the way. Shoulder tackles by Cena followed by a back suplex because he can’t spin around Show. Cena countered the Chokeslam and Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment. The fans did pop for that pretty good. He covered, but Seth Rollins showed up for the DQ ending. The match went 6 minutes.
Winner by disqualification: John Cena
Analysis: * At least it was a quick match. The DQ ending was very predictable, of course.
Rollins attacked Cena along with Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. Rollins got a ladder while J&J brought a table into the ring. Rollins set up the ladder looking like he was going to hit a Curb Stomp on Cena, but Dolph Ziggler showed up.
Ziggler knocked Rollins off the ladder. They went after J&J. Show went back into the ring to hit the KO Punch on Ziggler and a KO Punch for Ziggler.
Erick Rowan showed up to go after Show. Luke Harper cut him off by attacking him from behind. Show and Harper tossed Rowan into the steel stairs at ringside. Show gave Rowan a Chokeslam onto the steel stairs.
Ryback ran down to go after Show by shoving him into the post. Ryback hit a huge clothesline on Harper. Ryback set up a table for Shellshock on Harper, which looks like a stupid move to do through a table.
Kane showed up to attack Ryback with a chair, so Ryback couldn’t attack Harper anymore. Ziggler hit a superkick on Show and then hit him with another one. Harper picked up Ziggler and slammed him stomach first through the table. Cena hit Harper with the Attitude Adjustment.
Rollins attacked Cena, who was crouching down after hitting the AA. I would have had Rollins hit him with a kick to set it up because this looked too cheesy even for WWE. Rollins had the help of J&J to lift up Cena and they gave Cena a Triple Powerbomb to put him through the announce table.
Raw ended with the heels standing tall in the ring.
Analysis: I’m not sure how many times Raw has ended this year with a DQ or a countout finish that ended in a brawl, but it’s far too often. It’s understandable that they should do it once in a while. It’s too much, though. Why should fans sit around for three hours to wait for a disappointing finish? Fans can’t get invested in matches when they know the result means nothing because it’s going to end in some kind of brawl.
With that said, it wasn’t a bad ending. They were promoting the TLC PPV and I think if you’re watching this show then you know what the main matches are. It’s just that we see it all the time that it has become a joke by this point.
As a final note, Cena isn’t losing on Sunday, but you probably knew that. That’s the problem with WWE booking. Cena is the least sympathetic babyface there is because he almost always wins and always gets title shots. It’s been the problem for a long time with no solution in sight.
Three Stars of the Show
1. Seth Rollins
2. Dolph Ziggler
3. Damien Mizdow – Nothing special, but I can’t think of anybody else. He rules.
The Scoreboard
4.5 out of 10
Last week: 5
2014 Average: 5.83
2014 High: 9 (April 7 & June 30)
2014 Low: 3 (September 1)
Last 5 Weeks: 5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 7
Final Thoughts
It gets a 4.5 out of 10.
That score might be generous. It probably is. The Slammy Awards are always a below average show and this year was no different. The problem is the format of the show is lame with the awards, the video packages and the speeches taking up so much time. It’s hard to really build angles or have great matches when the matches are so short.
It’s a three hour show where only two matches got about ten minutes and everything else felt rushed.
To WWE’s credit, I think they did a good job of building up the top matches at TLC. While I don’t really care about Ryback vs. Kane or Rowan vs. Show, the Cena vs. Rollins, Harper vs. Ziggler and Ambrose vs. Wyatt matches should all be very good, so that’s something to look forward to. The problem is the show doesn’t have a major type feel to it.
What was refreshing about this show is that time wasn’t wasted with vignettes and segments talking about who was in charge. I guess we’re supposed to think that Seth Green did. That stuff about “who is in charge” is totally unnecessary. Green wasn’t that bad, by the way. His role was limited.
I’m more excited for the NXT special on Thursday than I am about the TLC PPV. At least both are on WWE Network, which is cheap and easy for me to use. That’s a plus at least.
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That’s all for this week. I hate that this is over 6,000 words, but you can blame the Slammys for that!
The preview for the Tables, Ladders & Chairs (And Stairs) PPV will be posted this weekend, most likely on Saturday morning. I won’t be seeing the PPV live, but I’ll likely post the PPV recap on Monday morning.
My 6th Annual WWE Johnny Awards column is coming on December 20. If I can get it done before that I will, but no guarantee of that.
Check out my feature column archive that’s exclusive to WhatCulture. I just put up a cool feature looking at the career of Randy Savage, so check that one out.
Thanks for reading.
John Canton – [email protected]
Twitter @johnreport
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