Treading Water ‘Til Cena Returns
Raw came to us live from the ATL with the roster fresh off the monster European tour. Mental note #1, the shows right after long tours always tend to be….slower. I forgot this note last night and got pretty hyped to see the show open with a gang of superstars in the ring. That’s different and I love different! Then after scanning that gang I saw no Batista and knew I was in for the okey-doke. Good thing Ron Simmons is back so he can join Hacksaw Jim Duggen and those miscellaneous ECW guys to fill out the ring.
Stephanie McMahon with some blah blah blah, Randy Orton with even more blah blah blah. Then Cody Rhodes and JBL and HBK and enough already! Basically they set up this weekend’s PPV in the opening segment.
Finally! Batista is WALKING~! and he’s coming up next for his match against Manu. Manu’s a big boy and that’s the story of the night. He matches Batista in power and dominates the early going. Cody is on the outside for moral support and Orton is scouting out the proceedings from the top of the ramp.
After Manu scores a couple a near fallls, Batista eventually out manuevers him to land the Batista Bomb and the win. Cody kinda’ threathens he wants to go after Batista but wimps out. Then Batista and Orton have a stare down. Batista gets on the mic to tell Orton Stop worrying about John Cena returning and worry about me. Three years Orton has bad-mouthed Evolution and Batista has wanted to whoop his butt ever since. At Survivor Series, the whooping will happen.
So the Survivor Series match is Team Orton (Cody, Regal, Mark Henry, Shelton Benjamin) vs. Team Batista (CM Punk, Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, R Truth).
The main event of the night is Orton vs. CM Punk in a lumberjack match. Batista was the laziest Lumberjack in the world. I say that with love. He didn’t really seem to be into hanging ringside with all the geeks. Orton was on the outside quite a few times and Batista always took his time springing into action…after letting the Charlie Haases and such get a taste first. Orton got the win then the lumberjacks piled into the ring. Show went off the air with Batista beating on Manu.
Final thoughts: Come back already, John Cena. Sheez! Raw has been going in slow motion waiting for your neck to heal up. The videos were really cool the first couple of times we saw them but every week, every show, it’s too much and only the hardcore John Cena fans are still digging it.
Batista vs Orton feels like it should have had a bigger build up. I mean, sure Evolution was three years ago, but if the WWE creative is going to dip into that rich well of history, do it up right. Back then we just knew Orton and Batista, the young lions of the group, would have to prove themselves against each other. Between roster changes and injuries we had to wait three years for that match. And it’s a ten man survivor series tag match at that! Instead of feeling big it feels very, meh.
