Raw Revelations: Jeremy Piven & Dr. Ken
On the August 3rd, 2009 edition of Raw the WWE Universe was treated to another non-wrestler, celebrity host in TV/movie star, Jeremy Piven. Piven portrays a hilarious role on the hit HBO comedy Entourage as a wheeling/dealing movie agent in Hollywood named Ari Gold, always using tricks and underhanded moves to get his star Vincent Chase a movie role. On Raw, Piven's acting skills definitely shone through, but unfortunately he brought along a sidekick called "Dr. Ken". I'm not familiar with The Hangover since I've yet to see it, but hear it's hilarious. It just seemed maybe we could have done without Dr. Ken at some point in the show. Then again that's probably what lead to his demise at the end of Raw.
The final match of the night was set up by Piven as a Lumberjack match between The Miz and John Cena. Piven added 3 stipulations for Miz if he lost: 1)he's banned from Summerslam (or Summerfest as Piven called it), 2)Miz is banned from Staples Center in Los Angeles, and 3)Miz would be banned from WWE Raw, forever. As the final match hit, Piven came out to the ramp with Dr. Ken again and announced he loved Cena's work, but was a bigger fan of Orton's. Therefore, Orton picked all the Lumberjacks, all heels. Cena had his troubles, as he was beat on outside the ring by guys like Legacy and Chris Masters, but still found a way to get an Attitude Adjustment on The Miz to finish him. What bothers me here was the stipulation for no more Miz on Raw. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I found his character to be one of the more humorous and entertaining to come to Raw since the draft. He even gave two great matches against Cena on Raw, including last week's Beat the Clock. Again, what gives with WWE boosting a guy up only to throw him out the window? Let's hope there's a future guest host from MTV's Real World who reinstates Miz, his anti-Cena gimmick was pretty imaginative and his mic skills were pretty good too.
Also on the show, another guy who WWE made a big deal about only to seemingly "demote" is Mark Henry. I understand the squash factor in having him beat Chavo Guerrero, but making him the new pal for Hornswoggle reeks of demotion. Just weeks ago, Henry defeated Randy Orton, yet is nowhere near the title competition. I'm not calling Mark Henry the best wrestler in the ring, but why does WWE seem to spotlight talent only to revert back to the same old?
Speaking of that, we all know what Triple H's really strange promo speech after losing to Legacy means. He dropped the catch phrases "I've got 2 words for ya..." and "are you ready?", which spells out a return of Shawn Michaels & D-Generation X at Summerslam 2009. I wasn't crazy about how Triple H did that promo after his loss, because it made him look a bit weak and foolish in the ring. Having him complain about losing and saying he's just not up to par by himself was quite odd coming from a guy who's completely destroyed people in the ring before. The good news though, seems to be HBK will be back by month's end for the PPV. As of now, they're portraying a bit of story where he's edging more towards retirement and having another job, but HHH will talk him into it as Legacy continues to hound him.
Chris Jericho did a pretty good job on commentary along with Lawler and Cole. Even saw someone say on Twitter that Jericho could replace that duo as the commentary for Raw. Quite possible as Jericho is one of the best on the mic, and pretty funny at times. He and Show destroyed Kofi Kingston after Big Show's DQ loss during the show. I thought for sure that Big Show was leaving Raw as new United States Champion, but instead the match demonstrated his dominant and barbaric nature. Raw also included a Primo vs. Carlito match which was decent with Carlito hitting a late Backstabber to get a clean win, and a divas tag match where Gail Kim & Mickie James lost to Beth Phoenix and Jillian. Not sure why Jillian was brought out for tonight's show rather than Rosa.
I'm not completely down on this guest celeb episode of Raw, as it still ranks above the ZZ Top episode. Next week we'll get Sgt. Slaughter, who's used to calling shots on Raw (and calling heels "maggots"). But last night's show definitely included a ton of previews for that new Piven movie "The Goods". Looks funny, but not sure if Piven jumping off the turnbuckle at Cena will dropkick his movie to stellar box office returns..
The final match of the night was set up by Piven as a Lumberjack match between The Miz and John Cena. Piven added 3 stipulations for Miz if he lost: 1)he's banned from Summerslam (or Summerfest as Piven called it), 2)Miz is banned from Staples Center in Los Angeles, and 3)Miz would be banned from WWE Raw, forever. As the final match hit, Piven came out to the ramp with Dr. Ken again and announced he loved Cena's work, but was a bigger fan of Orton's. Therefore, Orton picked all the Lumberjacks, all heels. Cena had his troubles, as he was beat on outside the ring by guys like Legacy and Chris Masters, but still found a way to get an Attitude Adjustment on The Miz to finish him. What bothers me here was the stipulation for no more Miz on Raw. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I found his character to be one of the more humorous and entertaining to come to Raw since the draft. He even gave two great matches against Cena on Raw, including last week's Beat the Clock. Again, what gives with WWE boosting a guy up only to throw him out the window? Let's hope there's a future guest host from MTV's Real World who reinstates Miz, his anti-Cena gimmick was pretty imaginative and his mic skills were pretty good too.
Also on the show, another guy who WWE made a big deal about only to seemingly "demote" is Mark Henry. I understand the squash factor in having him beat Chavo Guerrero, but making him the new pal for Hornswoggle reeks of demotion. Just weeks ago, Henry defeated Randy Orton, yet is nowhere near the title competition. I'm not calling Mark Henry the best wrestler in the ring, but why does WWE seem to spotlight talent only to revert back to the same old?
Speaking of that, we all know what Triple H's really strange promo speech after losing to Legacy means. He dropped the catch phrases "I've got 2 words for ya..." and "are you ready?", which spells out a return of Shawn Michaels & D-Generation X at Summerslam 2009. I wasn't crazy about how Triple H did that promo after his loss, because it made him look a bit weak and foolish in the ring. Having him complain about losing and saying he's just not up to par by himself was quite odd coming from a guy who's completely destroyed people in the ring before. The good news though, seems to be HBK will be back by month's end for the PPV. As of now, they're portraying a bit of story where he's edging more towards retirement and having another job, but HHH will talk him into it as Legacy continues to hound him.
Chris Jericho did a pretty good job on commentary along with Lawler and Cole. Even saw someone say on Twitter that Jericho could replace that duo as the commentary for Raw. Quite possible as Jericho is one of the best on the mic, and pretty funny at times. He and Show destroyed Kofi Kingston after Big Show's DQ loss during the show. I thought for sure that Big Show was leaving Raw as new United States Champion, but instead the match demonstrated his dominant and barbaric nature. Raw also included a Primo vs. Carlito match which was decent with Carlito hitting a late Backstabber to get a clean win, and a divas tag match where Gail Kim & Mickie James lost to Beth Phoenix and Jillian. Not sure why Jillian was brought out for tonight's show rather than Rosa.
I'm not completely down on this guest celeb episode of Raw, as it still ranks above the ZZ Top episode. Next week we'll get Sgt. Slaughter, who's used to calling shots on Raw (and calling heels "maggots"). But last night's show definitely included a ton of previews for that new Piven movie "The Goods". Looks funny, but not sure if Piven jumping off the turnbuckle at Cena will dropkick his movie to stellar box office returns..
Labels: Commentary, D-Generation X, Dr. Ken, Jeremy Piven, John Cena, Legacy, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Summerslam, Triple H
1 Comments:
don't know who this "Ken" guy is, but you're right, he just needed to stay home. Course, I had no idea who Jeremy Pivens was, and still don't, since Im' not going to the movie. But it was still better than ZZ Top's appearance, which is a real shame because I thought they'd be much better than they were.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home