Bret's on his honeymoon in Hawaii, but I'm sure we will see him again before Summerslam

The Miz, from Cleveland, keeps missing opportunities to become a world champion. I feel like Cleveland's seen this before.

Kev, I think you nailed the show pretty well with your comments. However, and perhaps this has been answered already, why doesn't WWE call Jerry Lawler, Jerry "The King" Lawler?

It would have made more sense if Edge was trying to kick Bret Hart off the team instead of Khali. I mean, the current Bret Hart is NOWHERE NEAR the wrestler he once was back in the 90s. Also, it made no sense not to have Bret come on this week's show.

As for Nexus, at first I hated them, I wanted them gone from t.v. but now I'm look forward to seeing their segments.

Did you hear Skip Sheffield struggle mightily with the word "individuals"? Perhaps he should stick to clotheslining people's heads off and leave the talking to the likes of Barrett and Otunga.

I hate the nxt very very much

I agree that the fans are dying to cheer for Jericho. He's just one of those guys who the fans love to see, face or heel, because you know when Jericho's out there you're gonna see something good.

Any idea if Shawn was backstage just saying hi to the old gang or is remaining removed from wrestling completely?

RESPONSE FROM KE: THe word is that he was not backstage.

I know it's kind of silly but did you catch when Michael Cole opened the "I have a message from the RAW GM" computer and his script was right there? I don't believe anyone's actually sending messages but I thought that was pretty sloppy. I noticed there were no over the shoulder camera shots after that.

It was not at all strange for Bret Hart to have been absent this week. In the next week or two, Team Cena will bicker with each other and just as they are about to come to blows Hart's music hits. He comes down and and cuts the promo of his life. He tells them he is angered and embarrassed by what he has seen and that he expects more out of them. Bret's eloquent words will have the effect of unifiying the disparate parts of Team Cena into one.

Nor is it odd that Nexus spared The Great Khali. You might recall that after Edge dissed Khali he passed Ranjin Singh backstage. Singh was talking to a man who had his back turned to the camera. Given that the man was wearing a black t-shirt and had dark gelled hair it appeared to be Wade Barrett. One can then infer that Singh made a deal with Barrett to spare Khali from the wrath of Nexus.

I am fully behind Chris Jericho on this "Team Cena" thing .. why are they calling it "Team Cena" - its Jericho and Edge that is going to make this thing work .. For some jerk who goes around claiming we cant see him, he needs to tone down his clothes .. Everytime I see Cena on TV I want to run to the store and grab me a Sunkist soda ..and for someone making so much money as he is cant he buy some better fitting pants I am tired of seeing his colored underwear ... it was great to hear him being booed almost as much as he was cheered at the start of the show .. WWE needs to get a hint that no one likes him .. let him go off to Hollywood to make movies so we dont have to see his worthless wrestling

"I wonder if it will be explained that they see him as a weak link and thus want him to remain on Cena’s team. …"

No. I believe Barrett will say that the Nexus wants the Raw Allstars to be healthy for the match so they can prove their dominance.

Any real WWE fan is not going to buy into Nexus being that talented. During the match I kept thinking "this is lame." These rookies are going to be good performers later but to have them dominate established superstars like they did is unrealistic. The fallout of the Raw team is a good work. We will see if the writers can make this a good story or not. I hope they do, it would be nice to see some creative stories for a change.

What will happen first? We find out the payoff of the Sting angle, or we find out the payoff of the Nexus' "Greater Purpose"?

Wow I felt that Nexus vs Team Mid card on Raw was terrible. There is no way I could ever buy that some of those guys who couldn't win a match on NXT are now one move killing other much more established stars. When did "ski mask" develop a powerslam that is a knockout move? So boring, first time since the Monday night wars era Ive changed the channel on raw (not including football season).

brett will come and save the team and the last second. i just hope if they reveal the gm at summerslam its not something lame like abe washington

Cena is an idiot. The Nexus is running roughshod over everyone and he's making the same dumb jokes as always. I liked how Jericho told him he was "more like the Nexus than you think", interrupting people and saying what he wants when he wants.

I'm glad that the Nexus focus is on Cena; it reminds me of when heels would come into the area and single out the champ ( Sammartino, Backlund, Hogan ) as the reason they are there.

BTW, does anyone else feel that with the taglines used by the GM in the emails, that it's Eugene??????

I thought the Raw show it self was boring the only good match was Randy Orton vs the Uso 's and then you had a another catch phrase from anonymous GM " if your not down with that i got two words for ya"

Hey Eck, just a random question here. Did Hulk Hogan have a prenup when he married his wife Linda? Couldn't find the answer online and thought you might know.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I don't know.

The elimination match was NOT believable. It just wasn't. It was a good old fashioned "squash," except the "jobbers" were really more talented wrestlers. Evan Bourne lost all credibility. So did most of the others. This is why the WWE is so hard to stomach.

When they announced Lawler was going to be a part of the match, I thought we'd see Nexus taking on Legends. It would be easy to get some heat, but it would be perfectly believable that Nexus could beat the likes of Lawler, perhaps Slaughter, Rhodes, and so on.

Nope, this episode did nothing to make me want to purchase SummerSlam. In fact, it bothered me just enough to not want to watch Raw for a while.

Kev, did you miss Lawlor's guess of Michaels as the mystery GM during the broadcast?

I think Miz will be the first MITB winner not to become champion....just like all of cleveland's other sports entertainment entities. Just remember Art Modell didn't win his first championship until he got out of Cleveland.

I laughed my ___ off when Orton slapped Miz in the face right before he dropped him on his head...and then he almost dropped the F-Bomb. He yelled "You stupid mother raaaa!!" Maybe he really does have IED.
And what is all this talk about Summer Slam? I thought it was SummerFest.

I understand the point that was trying to be made with this week's show, but it was far too heavy-handed. I thought last week they put guys on the team like Khali so that the Raw team wouldn't look completely stacked. Guys like Bourne and the Hart Dynasty deserve better than to be treated like jobbers to a group that will be an afterthought in a year. It's shortsighted and counterproductive. It did very little to make the Nexus look strong, but it did a lot to make those guys look weak. I couldn't suspend my disbelief either, and apparently neither could the live crown, who mostly sat on its hands throughout the match. It's the issue that was always lurking about this group from the beginning, as you mentioned. It was always going to be difficult to get people to buy into the fact that these "rookies" were legitimate threats as wrestlers.

Garbage...

Nexus Squahing Raw stars like Henry, THD and Bourne?... Even Goldust??? Just garbage...

I don't think the Nexus clean sweep was farfetched by any means. Seven young and dedicated guys eliminating the likes of Tatsu, Goldust, and Jerry Lawler (what, was Doink unavailable) makes sense to me. The others had the excuse of being outnumbered, something Lawler kept referencing.

Tarver was always solid in the ring, it was his terrible promos and challenges that caused him to be unpopular.

R-Truth was at the announce table along with the Big Show once. That's when I realized how bad he was on the mic. Hmm... no wonder he's friends with Morrison.

Another above average Raw in my opinion.

Ugh, Michael Cole called another Orton powerslam a scoop slam. Am I the only one that notices this?

At this point the WWE might want to be careful because they might end up turning Miz babyface. I think everyone wants to see him take the title off of Sheamus.

Eugene will be the GM

At this point, the WWE has to establish the Nexus as individuals, not as a team. Even if they are fully united and the Raw All-Stars aren't, I still have a hard time believing that they will be able to beat a team with some 40 world titles among them. It's time to put these guys in some singles matches.

And it's also time to give Chris Jericho a babyface run....

when orton hit the RKO on miz, he got up and gave a wicked glance, left, then right, then left again.
it would be a fantastic gimmick if everytime he hit the RKO, he did this, and the arena to the left would chant 'R', then when he looks to the right, that side chants 'K', then finally the left again 'O'

A horrible Raw, but after last week (7/19), it's going to be difficult to keep that up. Jericho is great - I actually like him better as a heel. The "Y2J" chants put a look into his eyes that you thought, just maybe he was going 'face, but then he went for the easy cheap heat. Outstanding!! He's head & shoulders above Cena as a performer.

Is it just me or does this elimination tag match remind anyone else of another PPV usually in November and NOT Summerslam?? Since Edge and Jericho and Cena can't get along, it would have made more sense to put all of these guys in singles matches with the Nexus and build to an elimination match at Survivor Series in November. Maybe give Barrett his world title shot at Summerslam and have Edge or Jericho get involved there.

At what point to you foresee the GM being revealed? At this point, who are you thinking it is?

I don't know if there's anything to it, but when Jericho said that Cena was like Nexus, Cole made a comment inferring that he agrees with Jericho. Perhaps a small wink to the audience that Cole is really the mystery GM?

(and I already know about the argument against Cole that Vince was talking to the mystery GM on the phone while Cole was sitting at the announce table next to Lawyer... but it's not like these sort of oversights have ever stopped them before).

The Raw Team should lose at SummerSlam and Cena should turn heel, blaming his team for not being able to get the job done.

I seriously can not take a group of wrestlers named after a shampoo seriously. It was bad enough when Too Cool used a bottle of head and shoulders to pin Head and Al Snow back in 98.
Its getting more and more difficult to watch raw now. Between Miz, Shaemus and John Cena, its just the same each week. Sorry about that to any fan of RAW but that is how I feel.
TNA doing an ECW reunion show. Not a good idea.

I'm thinking the NXT are going to win at SummerSlam. I didn't give them a chance originally, but now I think it would be next to pointless to have them lose at SummerSlam.

Besides, look at the WWE All Stars team: Chris Jericho is probably aligned with NXT, and Edge is probably going to abandon the teammates. That makes the match 7:5, and if the NXT can mow down the seven guys we saw on RAW, then I think they can take out an aged Bret, Khali, and Truth & Wisdom. That leaves John Cena.

Therefore, you may be looking at this RAW backwards. WWE isn't trying to build NXT as a threat. They're trying to prepare the audience for the NXT victory.

Kev,

Did you not at least chuckle at the irony of Cena saying he is not Superman?

MIz really needs to drop the U.S. title. He clearly does not need it. Count me among the people that thought Miz had no future but has proven he can be (and is) a main eventer.

This week further solidified my feeling that Vince Russo is the GM. He again used a tagline from the Attitude Era for which he was famous.

I am beginning to get tired of the Nexus angle. Unfortunately, it seems to be the same thing each week with Nexus interrupting something and beating up on the Raw stars with little to no retaliation. I think they need to interject a swerve of some sort.

Mr. Sarcasm,

I agree, and that's just part of the issue. Clearly Nexus has to go over at SummerSlam, the angle is pretty over if they lose. The problem is that it just isn't believable, no more than it was that Nexus would win the match on Monday with no more than a little token offense for Bourne and Henry. The credibility just isn't there. Even in the earlier days of the NWO, you still had a former IC champ, a triple crown champion, and the most famous wrestler of all time, so it was a little more realistic that those three guys could cause havoc of that magnitude. For the Nexus, it's a case of too much too soon when it's clear that at this moment that only Wade Barrett is ready for the big time.

First 6 eliminated are from RAW, then Cena eliminates the 7 Nexus guys and WWE is saved thanks to Superduper man. The set-up for this was made this week. (Nexus sweeps, RAW team bickering, Cena just wants to save WWE). HORRIBLE, but probably a lock.

RAW is just becoming more and more bovine excrement as far as I'm concerned.

I wonder what they have planned for the Survivor Series, now that they've gone and booked The Nexus in an elimination match at Summerslam.

I agree with a previous poster that The Nexus members should be taking on singles and tag matches by now. They're on a united front--they've demonstrated that already. Now add some variety to their match-ups.

I would LOVE to see Gabriel and Slater take on The Hart Dynasty for the belts.

ON A SIDENOTE: Anyone else notice Slater using the ZigZag as a finisher?

Hard to believe the WWE veterans could not eliminate even one member of the Nexus group, who, with the possible exception of Gabriel and Barrett, are really undercard guys. In fact this whole Nexus angle is becoming rather hard to believe.

I wonder if the Nexus` "Greater Purpose" is like Steve Martin`s "Special Purpose" in the Jerk.

Eck,

Did you notice Natayla coming out with the rest of RAW's 7 man team, only for Tyson Kidd to say something, after which she turned and ran backstage? Seemed quite bizarre, especially since it obviously wasn't done to plant a seed for later in the match.

On a happier note what do you people think of the new SmackDown vs Raw 2011 video game it has Drew McIntyre and Shemus.

I would have been much more interested in the Raw superstars against the Nexus if the WarGames gimmick was going to be used. This would have generated much more interest all together. I believe WWE has screwed up the possibilities of that happening with the warring WWE stars now. They could still put the match in the WarGames fomat but knowing the WWE team is going to disintegrate cheapens the interest.

Sorry Joe Barber, I missed your first comment so my statement was directed in response to Kevin's comments within his article (though I see now mine applied almost perfectly as a response to your comment).

I fully agree with the heart of your complaint because I would rather believe all wrestlers are "larger-than-life" than feel as though even I could enter WWE and dominate later that same month (I blame the CAW video games).

However, there are a couple things I've learned to accept as fact in the wrestling world to make this angle tolerable: hot streaks and synergy! Hot streaks are self-explanatory and they truly exist in the sporting world, so NXT is less far-fetched given that allowance. In synergy, the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts, so even though NXT is insanely dominant right now, they can reasonably transition into mediocre mid-carders after the angle runs its course.

Lets face it Vince McMahon's empire is crumbling to the ground thats why this Nexus storyline was created because SmackDown and Raw's ratings have dropped .

"I get it that Yoshi Tatsu is not very high in the pecking order, but he has been established as a solid wrestler and was coming off a competitive match against Jericho on WWE Superstars, so the fact that he was pinned a minute into the elimination match with a powerslam by Tarver of all people was a joke."

I agree with you that Tatsu deserves better, but Tarver's looked a lot more dangerous and a lot less buffoonish since the beginning of the Nexus angle. He was one of three Nexus members to cut a promo that night, along with Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield, and he did a good job. Definitely a better job than he used to do on NXT.

I absolutely agree that some of those guys should not have been on Raw's B Team.

If you're going to have guys get demolished, don't go with Bourne (although, I think this will lead to him joining the A Team), Kidd, and Smith.

Guys like Marella and Kozlov were available. They're not being pushed as legitimate threats.

"I laughed my ___ off when Orton slapped Miz in the face right before he dropped him on his head...and then he almost dropped the F-Bomb. He yelled "You stupid mother raaaa!!" Maybe he really does have IED.
And what is all this talk about Summer Slam? I thought it was SummerFest."

HAHAHHAA I thought I saw that!! Classic.

yeah i think batista, shawn michaels or triple h should join team wwe.