5/30/11 WWE Raw Recap
Hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day. Follow along tonight as the Starman covers WWE Raw.
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Raw opens with a video package that dedicates tonight’s show to the Armed Forces on this Memorial Day. Taps is played before we head to the arena where we see R Truth at the merchandise stand tossing things around. There seems to be some technical difficulties as no audio is being heard.
Truth then makes is way towards the arena as they cut to the broadcast team as Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler talk about having some difficulties as we see R Truth come out from the crowd. Truth is yelling at fans who are wearing John Cena t-shirts and hats. More audio difficulties are apparent as Truth makes his way towards the ring and the audio is about five seconds ahead of the video feed.
Truth continues to run his mouth in the ring as John Cena’s music hits and he comes down to the ring with the WWE Championship. Cena tells Truth lives in a fantasy world of conspiracies and asks what is wrong with him. Truth says that all of the fans and Cena have conspired to keep him down ever since he stopped rapping and dancing.
Cena says the WWE fans are the best fans in the world, and if Truth wants a match, he has no problem knocking some sense into him. Truth says that what he wants so he can beat him down in front of all of the little Jimmy’s. The GM email alert goes off as Michael Cole reads it and makes the match between Cena and Truth official, however, there will be no little Jimmy’s allowed ringside.
Truth leaves the ring as we the broadcast team breaks down what happened last week with Kharma and she will speak about it tonight. First, though, Kofi Kingston will be taking on Dolph Ziggler as we head into a commercial break.
We return to the arena and Michael Cole says they believe the technical issues are behind them as we head into the first match of the night.
Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler
The bell rings and the two go back and forth in the opening moments with Ziggler gaining the early momentum. Kingston turns things around with a monkey flip but Ziggler is able to stall Kingston’s attack by pushing him off the top rope and onto the floor as we head into a commercial break.
We return to see Ziggler in control of the match and continues to wear down Kingston with a headlock. Kingston is able to move out of the way of a turnbuckle splash to regain control of the match. Kingston then takes Ziggler down with a clothesline before connecting with a Boom Drop.
Kingston then misses with Trouble in Paradise and Ziggler puts a sleeper hold on Kingston. Kingston gets out of the hold and Kingston goes to the top rope, but misses with a cross body block. The two go back and forth for a moment until Ziggler counters the SOS and hits the Zig Zag to pick up the clean pin fall over the US Champion.
The announce team talks about Alex Riley attacking the Miz and Michael Cole promises to get Riley to apologize to the Miz later on tonight. They then hype tonight’s main event of John Cena vs. R Truth as we head into a commercial break.
Ricardo Rodriguez is in the ring to introduce Alberto Del Rio, who comes out to the ring driving in a blue Audi R8. Del Rio gets in the ring as we are treated to footage of what happened to the Big Show last week. Highlights of the match are shown where the Big Show and Kane lost the Tag Team Championships and the Big Show was hit by a car driven by Rodriguez.
Back to the ring, Del Rio says it was an accident as Rodriguez explains his actions in Spanish. Del Rio says the Big Show brought this upon himself and says bad things happen to bad people. Del Rio says he is a nice guy but business is business and says the Big Show will be getting a bill for damages to his car. Del Rio then tells Big Show to get well soon before leaving the ring.
The announce team hype a match between Rey Mysterio and CM Punk that will happen later on tonight as we see Kelly Kelly stretching out with Eve as they will be taking on the Bella’s in tag team action as we head into a commercial break.
Nikki & Brie Bella vs. Kelly Kelly & Eve
Eve locks up with Brie and locks her up in a submission hold as Nikki sneaks in when the referee Nunzio is distracted by Kelly Kelly to gain control of the match. The Bella’s continue to work over Eve with double team moves until Eve hits a suplex before tagging in Kelly Kelly. Kelly then hits a bulldog before picking up the pin fall.
The broadcast team talks about Kharma speaking for the first time and Michael Cole promises to get Alex Riley to apologize, and that is coming up next.
For a little heads up – my area is in a tornado warning and the winds are picking up, so I hope nothing goes down or that the power doesn’t go out during my live coverage. The lights are flickering around here though and the tornado sirens are going off.
Almost as soon as I submitted my last update, my power went out. It has finally returned by the storm is still going on strong around me, so I’ll try to catch up as quick as I can before getting back to the live coverage… as long as my power stays on.
Michael Cole questioned Alex Riley’s actions and Riley pushed Cole down to the mat. The Miz came out and started to brawl with Riley that went out into the crowd. The Miz ran out through the crowd.
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio
Mysterio had Punk set up for the 619 but Mason Ryan caused a distraction. Punk then hit Mysterio with a kick to the back of the head and picked up the pin fall victory.
Video of Kharma’s break down last week is aired and we see her standing in the ring. Kharma says she has had two dreams since being a kid, and that was to be a WWE superstar. She talks about trying out for Tough Enough 2 but Jim Ross told her that see was too fat to be in the WWE. Kharma talks about training in Japan and wrestling in every promotion she could find until finally making it to the WWE.
Her other dream is to become a mother. Kharma says she is currently with child, however, it is a high risk pregnancy and she cannot compete is risk of losing her child. She tells the fans that she will be back and is cut off by the Bella Twins. The two of them say that they just thought she was fat and say JR was right as she is not diva material.
The Bellas wonder if it bothers her that Kharma can’t do anything to them. They start telling “your mama” jokes until Kharma steps towards them and the Bellas back off. Kharma tells them that she hopes they are still around in a year because she now has a new dream before walking out of the ring.
The announce team talks about the upcoming Capitol Punishment pay-per-view as Jerry Lawler wonders how a press conference with President Obama would go. We then see a segment where a bunch of press reporters question Obama, which is spliced in with footage of him giving responses to other questions.
Match 4: Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne
The match starts and Swagger quickly powers Bourne around in the opening moments. Bourne is able to counter Swagger’s attack and the two are dumped out to the floor. Swagger, though, is able to keep his momentum and rolls Bourne back into the ring and picks up a near fall after hitting a clothesline. Swagger continues on the attack until Bourne counters with a roll up and picks up the pin fall.
Bourne quickly leaves the ring as Swagger is irate and is pissed at himself for losing the match.
R Truth is backstage talking to himself as John Cena is seen walking and passes Zack Ryder. Ryder is standing there with a toy version of the Intercontinental Championship as Cena smiles at him and bumps knuckles with Ryder as we head into a commercial break.
I am finally all caught up with tonight’s show, just in time for the main event. The lights are flickering once again, so I hope it stays long enough for the conclusion of the show.
We are treated to footage of the opening of tonight’s show with R Truth destroying a merchandise stand, this time, however, we hear the audio that was lost.
R Truth vs. John Cena
The match starts and Truth leaves the ring after locking up with Cena for a moment. Truth comes back into the ring and connects with a series of kicks on Cena but Cena fires back with a running bulldog as Truth again retreats to the floor. Truth comes back in and Cena connects with a clothesline before slamming Truth down to the mat and hitting a Five Knuckle Shuffle.
Truth again goes out to the floor to regroup and comes in as Cena picks him up for an Attitude Adjustment but Truth’s momentum takes him to the ropes and he again goes out to the floor. Cena follows Truth out and into the crowd as Truth hits Cena from behind and is able to get back into the ring before the referee counts to 10 and Truth wins the match via a count out.
After the match, Truth runs out to the crowd and to the family he was talking down to earlier in the show. Truth tosses a beverage in the father’s face before running off. Cena goes up to the family and wipes the dad’s face and talks with the child as Raw comes to a close.
Quick Results
– Dolph Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston by pin fall.
– Kelly Kelly & Eve defeated Nikki & Brie Bella by pin fall.
– CM Punk defeated Rey Mysterio by pin fall.
– Evan Bourne defeated Jack Swagger by pin fall.
– R Truth defeated John Cena by count out.
Starman’s Thoughts
Sorry about the brief outage during tonight’s live recap. I can’t control things like the weather, and what was a hot and humid day turned into a severe thunderstorm with 70 mph winds in a matter of minutes. I am fine as my me, my wife and two cats took shelter in our downstairs bathroom with a flashlight to wait out the storm. There was no damage that I know of on my end, but there are tons of trees and power lines down in our area. This was nothing compared to what happened recently in Joplin, MO, but my thoughts go out to them after having to endure a fraction of what they went though for 20 minutes.
As for the show, it was mediocre in my opinion. I haven’t watched Raw for a couple of weeks, but I can say that I was happy to see Michael Cole tone down his persona. He has continually gotten on my nerves over the past several weeks, and not in a good way, and he was actually decent today, as decent as Cole can get. He still seemed to have some slight heel tendencies, but it was toned down a lot.
Not sure if Dolph Ziggler’s hair was blond last week, but I’m glad to see that is back to normal once again as well. Since I’m on the topic of Ziggler, his match with Kofi Kingston was great for a television match, and was the highlight of the show that I was able to see.
Kharma’s announcement was pretty much what I, and pretty much everyone else, thought it would be. I am happy for Kharma and hope that everything goes well for her during her pregnancy, however, it is unfortunate for all of us as fans as her long awaited debut finally came. I hope she is able to pick up where she left off once she returns.
What was up with the Jerry Lawler “dream sequence” that showed the press questioning President Obama? I’m all for hyping a pay-per-view, but this wasn’t needed. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these segments as we lead up to Capitol Punishment as I’m sure someone in WWE creative thinks it’s comedy gold.
I wasn’t expecting much from the main event, but it somehow managed to fall lower than my expectations. R Truth stole a victory and the whole storyline with the random family was a let down. I can’t remember the last time I was so let down by an ending to Raw like I was tonight.
Sound off on your thoughts in the comments section and I hope you enjoyed the sort-of live coverage I provided tonight.
