Raw Thoughts - May 2

• Interesting that the montage at the start of the show only included George W Bush, and not Barack Obama. Surely an oversight, and not a McMahon directive. Right? :-)
• Good to see Lillian back. Hearing Justin Roberts' staggeringly annoying voice and intonation makes me miss Lillian every week. 
• To be honest, I'm left feeling strange about this whole opening. I don't blame the Americans for being happy about the Bin Laden thing, but a) I don't need it on a wrestling (or Entertainment) show and b) I don't think this is likely to end all terrorism. Being all pleased with yourself isn't going to help matters. Look, don't me wrong, I've been to the States three times and I genuinely love. Mostly, they are lovely, generous, kind, polite people. But I don't think on the whole they have any idea how much and why most of the rest of the world hates them. This kind of thing doesn't help their world image. I'm happy with you saying "America is the greatest country in the world" if you have experience of plenty of others. I know this is a stupid point, but it's like people who say Ashley Cole is the best left back in the world. If they do that, ask them to name three others. They'll come up with Evra, and then struggle. You won't hear Capdevilla or Lahm or Chivu or any of the other top contenders. They don't think beyond their own comfort zone, their own borders. 
• Mind you, it would have been very cool to see Finlay interrupt the national anthem. 
• That was a joke, relax.
• Cena v Miz in this show. Some will criticise it. I'm not so down on them doing this, as long it is only once in a while. The fact that the match the night before was a three-way helps too, because they aren't simply repeating the match. It's an indication that they are ready to transition Miz into something else (My money is on Rey Mysterio) and give Del Rio to Cena. 
• It took fifteen minutes before anything on this show was jingoistic nationalism, and when it came, it was a cock joke. 
• When I said 'when it came' in the previous bullet point, it was not a cock joke. 
• In the previous bullet when I quoted myself saying 'when it came', it was sort of a cock joke. 
• I'll stop now. Back to The Rock. He's just been interrupted by the GM. 
• ENORMOUS heat for Cole. Miami Heat, if you will.
• Fun stuff with Cole. Nice pay off to a fun segment.
• I don't know who the Pitbull is. I was hoping to see Gary Wolfe. For a second I thought it was Santino. 
• I didn't think for a second Truth v Morrison was going to happen. 
• Maryse v Kelly? I smell Kharma. 
• Oh look. Kharma, already, has changed the division. Interesting to see what happens. 
• Many will have hated the stuff with Santino, Swoggle, Koslov et al, but I have to say the Khali reveal made me laugh out loud. 
• World title at the top of the hour? I smell shenanigans. 
• Steve Carrell was hilarious. 
• The commentary for Miz v Cena was very good. Nice to have JR back. Well booked TV match. Not seen a dusty finish in WWE for a while. Again, as long as these matches are done sparingly, they'll have an effect. It will, I'm sure, get a negative reaction because Cena was involved. 
• My big problem with it was that it was a title match lost in the shuffle. I don't really know why it couldn't have been promoted on this show and drawn a rating the week after. 
• Tried very hard to think of a Degeneres X joke for Ellen but can't think of one. 
• If a tag title existed (a proper one) then Rey and Kofi would be a fun team to go after it. 
• I LOVED hearing JR explain to people some details about the draftees to people who don't watch Smackdown. 
• They seem to be building to Del Rio v Mysterio again. 
• I believe Cena. I think he will keep that belt until Mania next year. Or at least I believe that is their plan right now. 
• Mason Ryan's wrestling trunks are obviously slightly smaller than the shorts he wears in the tanning salon.
• This is the first time I've watched Kane and thought he looked completely past it. I've loved Glen Jacobs' act for years. He has been utterly terrific in his role. Better than anyone expected or had the right to expect. But he looked unsteady and off balance many times in his match with Mason Ryan. 
• Vince will be furious at the camera shot which blocked him off.
• Always good to see Vince. I love how he can be a heel for as long as he likes, but as soon as he comes back, he gets a pop. Says a lot.
• He also handles the 'What' chants better than anyone. 
• Oh. That ending was a little flat. I was expecting someone to draw some heat from attacking Rock or getting in a verbal exchange. I have a big problem with Rock being around often if he isn't putting anyone over. No-one has got a rub from working with Rock yet except maybe Miz, although that is debatable because he was a secondary figure. 
• Overall, not my kind of show. It felt like they aren't really sure where to go with anything except Truth and Morrison, which is rolling along well. With Rock, I just continually can't help but shift the feeling that he has been back for ages and hasn't really done anything, or helped anyone. I have a problem with that. I don't really understand the point of what I'm watching.