Monday Night Raw Warm Up for September 26th, 2011

Last week’s Monday Night Raw from Cleveland, Ohio saw the return of a former staple of the show, the guest host. Hugh Jackman was on the scene to promote his new fightin robot movie, Real Steel, and seemed to really enjoy himself. He wasn’t given complete control of the show, but he definitely got involved. I’m without my tag team partner this week so I’ll slash through things quickly to get ready for tonight’s show.

Woo Woo Wolverine was actually pretty great. I generally like Hugh Jackman, but he was legitimately one of the better celebrity hosts they’ve had on Raw. He bought right in and read the crowd. Grabbing the “Ryder > Wolverine” sign put it over the top. It doesn’t make me any more interested in seeing his Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots movie,

The Cleveland crowd was really behind Zack Ryder as Jackman’s handpicked opponent for Dolph Ziggler, but it really should have been a US Championship match. I’d love to see one between these two in the future Following it up with a Swagger video package and backstage bit shows how much WWE believes in Ziggler, Swagger and particularly Vicky with all the air time they’re getting.

C.M. Punk and Triple H addressing the “conspiracy” at the top of the show was interesting even if it does further muddy the waters of this angle. Triple H being a bystander makes sense and is consistent with what we’ve seen, but the rest of the details are all over the place. Triple H even he says he’s not sure where all this is going and it seems the writers are speaking about themselves through him.

That part of the show culminates in Miz and Truth being fined for attacking a referee at Night of Champions, put into a tag team match with the main eventers and fired before the night is through. I thought they might have gone up against Punk and Triple H, but it was really only a matter of time before they teamed Cena and Punk. It seems they’re headed for an angle with the fired Kevin Nash and most likely John Lauranaitis and Stephanie McMahon. They’re the best choice for a move like this, but I have no idea if it could work.

The schedule has them talking about the next PPV already with Hell in the Cell now less than a week away. I think I can speak for Brian here in saying he’s generally against the gimmick events and a triple-threat cell match for the WWE Championship with Cena, Punk and Del Rio only supports his opinion.

Mark Henry getting interview time on Raw is probably good for him, but the whole segment just felt like it went on forever. It sold the attack on the announce team, but the best part was honestly someone in the crowd shouting, “get Michael Cole.” The photos from his match with Orton make it look like it could have been a good match, but it will take a lot to pull off a decent Hell in a Cell match.

Other bits and pieces from last week included an eight-man tag match with Raw and Smackdown talent is clearly Survivor Series prep, but all it really accomplishes is keeping these guys on TV with as little air time as possible.

Speaking of drastically reduced air time, Alberto del Rio had another afterthought match with John Morrison.

Two Sin Caras? I’m really interested to know if either one of them is the original.

The Diva’s got cut to half a segment last week. It took the quick match to a whole new level.

We’ll be back again on Sunday to run down tonight’s show heading into the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, and again on Monday with some thoughts on the results. Be sure to join the discussion.

Read more about World Wrestling Entertainment on MyLatestDistraction.

Keep up with all of our weekly Monday Night Raw Warm Ups:
September 19th, 2011 edition / Hell in a Cell 2011 edition