If I'm not mistaken, there's two episodes of Raw tonight (one live, one taped), so that should go far in answering the big question coming out of last night... where do we go from here?
It seems more and more apparent that they just sort of coasted through Summerslam, which is a shame. I almost feel like they found out HHH couldn't come back and just gave up. Anyway, some deeper thoughts on everything...
IC title match - what we saw of it wasn't bad, and the ending was effective enough at putting over Nexus. It shit on the IC title, but that's nothing new at this point. What they should've done was actually have Nexus interfere in the Big Show/SES match instead, and have them take out the guy who was *actually* a threat. You don't shit on the IC title and have someone win, you don't change much in a match no one cares about, and you put Nexus over huge because they took out Show. Show and Punk end up in the same place anyway, so this was puzzling to me.
Show vs. SES - We always talk about the 'Cena no-sell', but what the
was up with Show not selling ANY of the offense to his hand? They destroyed his hand on Smackdown, they destroyed it during the SS match, yet Show never showed any signs of it. For me, it eventually got a little awkward, just like the women's match. It's like the SES had a plan for the match, and someone else just said '
it'.
Women's match - She hurt her knee! Let's attack her arm! Even the announcers didn't even bother to hide the fact that it made no sense. Such a sad division, and their match on Raw was world's better. Also, the complete jobbing of Fox two matches in a row made no sense.
Sheamus/Orton - I enjoyed this match, it just had a shitty ending. The non-finish could've worked, too, just not the way they did it. My two ideas were to either have Sheamus just wail Orton with the chair, or simply have him walk away. Either one would've accomplished the same thing, and felt less like a '
you' than what we got. The big problem with this match is not knowing the long-term booking plans. Sheamus will be fed to HHH upon his return, whenever that'll be. Orton seems like a shoe-in to be punted to Smackdown for October. I can only assume that they'll be a rematch at NoC, but who knows? My plan would've been a long-term feud, where Sheamus walks out on the match, says Orton goes to the back of the line, and Orton claws his way back up. He can taunt Sheamus on the way, since he's the one guy Sheamus can't beat. If done well, it'd sell PPVs for the rematch. Ultimately, though, this was a match that neither guy could afford to really 'lose', so I was never expecting a finish.
Kane/Mysterio - Why they keep putting these two together is beyond me. They don't work well together, and Mysterio's offense generally looks way too floaty to hurt Kane. Also, the repeated 619 attempts were just awful. Taker coming back was the biggest non-shock ever, and poorly done... until Kane actually got the better of him. I would've liked to see that stretched out a bit, with Taker getting along with Kane for a week or two, but that's just me. Oh, and about Mysterio's involvement... he wasn't 'attacked' enough to warrant time off, so I hope this doesn't mean he sticks around. A much bigger picture assertion is, throughout this program, Mysterio should've been Swagger. Swagger is believable as attacking Taker, it allows Kane to stay face until the 'reveal', and Swagger keeps the main event scene fresh. The entire storyline would've worked better with him, so I fail to see why it was Mysterio for any other reason than to 'keep Mysterio happy'.
WWE/Nexus - Did I miss something in the announcing about why no one would break up pins or was allowed outside? That bugged me a bit, but that was a long match as it was, so I guess it evens out. It was easy to see early on who they view as the dead weight of Nexus, so that's a plus. Bryan was a nice touch, though them spoiling was beyond awful. Seriously, though, can we take a minute and realize that Bryan Danielson was standing next to Bret Hart? One step beyond that, can we take a minute and realize that Bryan Danielson was the number two guy behind John Cena at the main event of Summerslam? It's a bizarre world sometimes. Anyway, the Edge and Jericho thing was predictable, the Miz run-in was exciting because of what it sets up, and the finish was awful. Really, no-selling an 'on the concrete' DDT was beyond ridiculous, even for Cena. I would've been okay with the ending if he had to be helped out of the ring like Sheamus, but that doesn't give the fans their 'happy' moment, does it?
That was a long post as it was, so I'll save my 'what now?' post for later.
He recently defeated Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Now, he's shooting some WWE commericals for the change to SyFy. He's moving on up! 
\\