Raw Thoughts June 22

· Candice is still on the “Yes Sir we promised you a great main event.....” montage. Expect she’ll be gone soon.
· Speaking of title sequences, I liked the touch of having Trump on the opening titles. Trump Raw microphone as well.
· Trump says about seven sentences, and is already better than Adamle.
· “Vince is a taker and I’m a giver.” Who wrote that line? Patterson?
· I couldn’t decide if I like that Cena/Miz promo or not. The crowd didn’t really buy it. I liked the Miz character fronting up when being called a coward. I quite liked the end too, with a cheap shot with little effect, rather than a brawl.
· I didn’t like the crowd reaction. It’s almost as though a lot of the crowd agrees with Miz, so he can’t really get the heat he deserves.
· What they need to do at The Bash is have Cena win, but only just. They can have an old fashioned Ric Flair-style match by having Cena go over but give loads to Miz, and have him nearly pull it out. I don’t mean Cena kicks out of everything and is superman. I mean Miz has most of the offence and creates many near-falls, and Cena shows on his face that he is relieved to win at the end. The following night Cena would say “You did well, you have my respect.” He will shake Miz’s hand, who will pearl harbour him.
· That Mr McMahon skit was so, so lame. Why was there a camera there? Why is Vince travelling with a driver and a cameraman?
· Isn’t it funny? When the talent all went to the outside I was expecting an advert. Funny how you can get trained to expect certain things. Nice, I might add, to have the uninterrupted match and not have to go to commercial.
· There was a very (VERY) brief moment where Punk shaped to hit Hardy with the belt but didn’t. Nice little heel flashes like that will keep the Punk character interesting.
· So fed up of Santina, so happy she’s gone. Mind you, the McDonalds line was pretty funny. Although they spent twenty minutes talking about KFC’s new grilled line, and then mentioned McDonalds.
· Did you notice how Donald kept looking at the camera, following up my point from earlier?
· Nice little touch with Santino appearing. That was actually a neat little segment.
· I really love the irony of a commercial free Raw shilling KFC the whole time.
· I’ll have to say it again – that was actually pretty funny. I didn’t care for the Goldust/Hornswoggle bit, but the office being the toilet cubicle and Festus coming out of it was humourous.
· Doesn’t showing Orton kicking Vince and crowing about beating the McMahon family seem a little bit odd with Vince playing a stupid heel tonight?
· Two things really wrong with the title match, in my opinion.
· One was the actual match type. I just can’t get on with a Last Man Standing match. If they want to have an arena wide brawl, I’d much sooner they did it in a Falls Count Anywhere contest. LMS leaves so many bits of the match empty, as all people do is flail about trying to stand up. FCA means pinfall opportunities which are far more exciting.
· Two was the ending. A draw? That isn’t going to work for pulling in the people. WWE get really nervous about falling viewership, so throw out major matches. The trouble is, they are too terrified to have someone beaten, so it’s a draw. Who is going to want to tune back again? “Well, they had an ok match, but the finish was boring” I’m guessing some sort of rematch on Sunday.
· No GM. I like that. Trump should be imposing a different style. I’d be tempted to go the whole hog. Change the colours, the music, the stage, the lot. (probably can’t afford to, I guess)
· I don’t really understand the business dynamic between Trump and McMahon. If Vince has sold Raw, why would Trump bankrupt him by giving stuff away free? Doesn’t Vince still own Smackdown and ECW? And Superstars?
· Hang on, what happened? Trump sold back? Oh man, this show is accomplishing the very opposite of everything it is setting out to do. So Trump is out of here, and the excitement we felt about a new Raw is gone already. Don’t they realise that fans have an investment in wrestlers hey like winning matches, they have no emotional tie in Donald Trump making a few million dollars.
· Oh shit, and if it couldn’t get worse – Cena v Big Show AGAIN!
· Triple H v Orton, two out of three falls. Good concept, if they must wrestle again, but to make the third fall a stretcher match is a terrible idea.
· “Three stages of hell” as they call it, hasn’t happened for six and a half years, as Cole says. Presumably, I haven’t checked yet, that is Triple H v Stone Cold which I think was straight, wrestling then no holds barred, then cage. I may be wrong.
· I am starting to like what they are doing with Mickie and Maryse. It’s not the most in depth storyline, but they at least doing something a little different to keep a bit of interest in the feud.
· I can’t really give you very much by way of analysis on another slow, plodding Cena v Big Show match, but I will offer you my opinion, which I have said before, about the STF mini-angle, which I really like. It’s nice to offer a little added edge to a series of matches, and although thinking of another submission hold or elbowing someone in the back might have happened earlier, it was something interesting to follow.
· I’ll give you the parking lot attack. Might as well do something a little extra, I guess.
· Overall, that’s a short-term good show and a long term potential nightmare. For two hours, commercial free, I was interested, looking forward to seeing what would happen next. I didn’t know what Trump would do. I didn’t know what the title match outcome would be. They were the two themes of the show, and they had me. However, one resulted in a match we’ve seen before which was ok at best and had a nothing finish, and the other let down a potentially really exciting and fun concept and shot it down after one week. Eight days ago Trump was nothing to do with Raw, and it seems it is that way again. I am a wrestling fan, a fan of WWE, and wanted to see exciting television. I liked the idea of Trump doing different things, the celebrity host sounded like fun, and I think the guy can actually cut a promo. However, it turns out it is just a one week publicity hit.
· To those that are thinking about buying the Pay Per View, you need to base your decision on how much you want to see Punk v Hardy and Jericho v Mysterio, because there is no point in buying it for Hunter v orton – you’ve just seen it. The match tonight was alright – but it wasn’t great because we’ve seen it ad nauseum. I don’t see how Sunday can be any better.
· I think a lot of people would have watched Raw and been very disappointed. That could be a very bad move.
· Back to speculation for GM again – I’m going JBL. It makes sense. I just hope he’d do it.