Raw Thoughts - November 3rd

Raw Thoughts

· I love how the 800th episode was several weeks ago and WWE have just pretended that it didn’t happen and called this special the 800th one.
· How come Orton gets the Kane mood lighting for his promo?
· Yeah, the Hardys! Because the 800th episode of this show is so huge we can’t rely on the people who are actually ON the RAW roster, can we?
· Anyone tuning in and not knowing Jeff Hardy is going to wonder what the hell happened to Alice Cooper. Nice eyeliner, Jeffrey!
· I quite like that – the heel team were the ones who lost via the ref not seeing a legal tag. Nice bit of variety. Well, for WWE at present it’s like a change.
· Ah, episode one of Raw, showing the best and worst of things. Bobby Heenan and Sean Mooney. In that order. Wow, and Max Moon was on that show. Part of me misses those days............but most of me doesn’t.
· Cool, the Razor v 123 kid match. If this is going to continue I’m going to enjoy it.
· Regal wins a neat little Battle Royal. Some interesting things to take from it, mainly the pointer to DiBiase looking very strong in the match and eliminating both Cody and Manu in the same spot.
· Oh, and Santino can do commentary every week, as far as I am concerned.
· Damn – I was hoping we’d have a sort of linear background of Raw, but we have to jump to McMahons, don’t we, since Shane has now arrived.
· Right, so Adamle has gone has he? So that’s interviewer, commentator, GM done.........next? Manager? Could happen!
· Ok – a nice twist with Orton. I liked Shane’s thoughts, the angle of Orton hiding his injury. But Orton v Punk is a nice grudge match that could have been saved for a PPV, or a ratings pop on next week’s Raw at the very least.
· Always it’s a bit self-indulgent by Michaels and Hunter, but it was pretty funny stuff. Even if they did steal a joke from Friends. That’s how you run for 800 episodes. Steal jokes off of the other long running shows.
· Good effort from Miz and Morrison. Obviously DX were going to win, but nice rub for the cocky young heels.
· They tease that briefly with JBL about him being GM, but that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. JBL’s strongest suit is his work while on the mic, and I firmly believe that he’d pull it off well.
· Terrific storytelling with Orton and Team Priceless tonight. Absolutely terrific. I’d have preferred the commentators to refer to DiBiase costing Manu and Cody their place in the Battle Royal previously, but you can’t have everything.
· Ok – maybe a bit of McMahon dissention, which may well lead to Shane and Steph at odds, which will then likely lead to the return of the only man who can mediate between them. (Clue: his surname is the same)
· A clip of Undertaker’s entrance on the first ever Raw. Hmm, they didn’t mention his opponent. Funny that. Anyone remember who it was? Answers to the usual address.
· Khali as a babyface. We could see it coming, of course, but dear God we don’t want Mark Henry v Great Khali matches. That could set a new record for atrocious wrestling.
· Batista falls crotch first on the top rope – Michael Cole says “This could be the opening....” He’s right, it could be now!
· Decent cage match. In fact, better than decent. Good stuff. Some nice spots, and in a match which has been done umpteen times it’s difficult to be innovative, but they were. Well done guys. · Nice to see Jericho win the belt cleanly too. Shame it’ll likely be a stop gap before Cena regains at Survivor Series.

Raw Thoughts - September 15th

· My first thought on seeing the cage descend towards the ring t open Raw was that it devalues the title by having it on first on Raw.
· My second thought, soon after, was that if this isn’t the main event, they may have saved something special for later on.
· A world heavyweight title match, unless completely unavoidable, should not have an advert break in it. However, that may be out of WWE’s hands, so I’ll reserve criticism.
· You know what, I love Jericho and think Punk is terrific, but I wasn’t crazy about that cage match. I liked the ending, but I didn’t think the match generally lived up to my expectations.
· Interesting backstage seg – Adamle called Kelly Kelly “K2” (isn’t that a mountain? Mind you, Kelly has a couple of those) then a guy came by and introduced himself. But it sounded like Dull Segue, which seemed like a stage direction. Then it was Jericho’s turn, and once again he showed his phenomenal ability to display the right emotions.
· Jillian is a riot. Her expressions are just so over the top they are funny. She is a brilliant character.
· Her match with Candice....not so brilliant. From every source I know, Candice is a truly lovely human being. But she is not a good wrestler.
· Tommy Dreamer? How does he get on Raw? Earlier on, Matt Sydal....dah, I mean Evan Bourne (I keep going to call him Matt Borne, who played Doink) had a word with Kane. How can ECW have a talent agreement with Raw if they have one with Smackdown too? Must make Tommy feel good. “Hey Tommy, we’re promoting you to Raw this week.” “Cool, the big leagues! Are you giving me a push?” “No, we want someone to be destroyed by JBL. You are expendable.” “Oh, ok. I’ll go drink some toilet water.”
· Batista has a go at Orton, Santino, Beth and JBL whining. He says they are like politicians. Yeah, that’s right Dave. Those no-good, whining, lying, cheating politicians. No good, the bunch of them. Oh, and Smackdown Your Vote kids.
· By the way, Batista was very, very good in this promo.
· Seriously, like I said last week, I’m getting a real kick out of Charlie Haas. Good Ole JH, as he was this week. This is what Raw is supposed to be like, you know. A bit of fun here and there.
· Short win for Noble over Burchill. Don’t hold out much hope for Burchill going forward, but Layla was good here, Noble is a quite a decent hand as the sympathetic babyface, and of course Regal is terrific as the smug heel. By the way, four brits in one segment there, although I am surprised they haven’t referenced thus far that Layla is from London. Regal must be given more airtime.
· Kane v Mysterio was pretty good for what it was. It was never going to be a classic, but told a good story, and I’ll even allow the reasonably weak finish.
· Bourne and Mysterio makes for a very exciting duo. What could be even more exciting is if they get into it down the line and fight each other. That could be extra-special.
· Good build to having HBK announced as the number one contender. Get this – a logical piece of booking, since Michaels effectively beat Jericho in the match at the last PPV. The ladder match stip is also an exciting one. The biggest shame is that they have quite a short build time to the Smackdown main event, because it strikes me that Triple H v Jeff Hardy and Shawn Michaels v Chris Jericho is a good double main.
· Two small complaints. If Batista v JBL is to determine who the number one contender is, what happens if Shawn wins? Doesn’t Jericho then get a rematch because of the alleged clauses in the contracts?
· And finally, wasn’t Adamle terrible in that explanation. It went very flat thanks to his boring speech.
· Overall I enjoyed this Raw and I think the progression of storyline and character worked very well this week.

Raw thoughts – August 25th.

· Very little annoys me more in wrestling than having my intelligence insulted by them throwing out a title match in a PPV then showing the match itself on Raw 8 days later. I know Punk v JBL was not a title match, but still.........
· Is Cole not capable of saying head? He said that CM Punk had “an injured skull”. I didn’t watch Smackdown as often as I watched Raw, and I’m far from a huge lover of Jim Ross, but Cole is dreadful.
· I quite like the idea that Beth helps Santino but he hinders her.
· People will say that the “Charlito” thing was lame........but I liked it!
· Haha, the best line of the night, unwittingly – “You don’t know the meaning of the word ‘Unforgiven’” Shawn Michaels to Chris Jericho. I don’t think it’s a word, that’s why. My spell check doesn’t think it is.
· Another great Jericho and Michaels segment, although I hope that the frequent mentions of ‘Unsanctioned’ and “I don’t want to pin your shoulders to the mat” don’t mean that this is just a mad fight with no real consequence or a stupid JBL/Cena ending. These two could still carry off the extra emotion while still having a wrestling match. That being said, I do like the realism of them fighting rather than the idea of “I hate you and want to kill you – here’s an armbar.”
· By the way, I think that the (paraphrased) “Sit your wife and kids down and tell them that you will never be Shawn Michaels” is one of the best lines I have ever heard in wrestling. Michaels using his injury, the storyline and his Christian beliefs to throw in the bible reference “eye for an eye” is not far behind.
· Not going to complain too much about the match between Duggan/Lawler and Rhodes/DiBiase, but wouldn’t it have been better for the youngsters to dominate, rather than just survive. It wouldn’t have hurt Duggan and Lawler, would it? But King could then get on the headset and put over just how good they are. “You don’t realise until you get in the ring just how quick they are. They are jackasses but they can go.” Does them the world of good. I don’t see why Duggan and Lawler need protecting.
· I cannot help laughing at Santino, and it seemed the announcers were struggling to hold it together this week. After a front suplex he just shouted “I win” and I broke up. Just so funny.
· Really lame ending to the match though. Beth could’ve low-blowed Kofi for Santino to use a small package. Falling onto Santino’s knee (The Marella Patella) was a bit weak.
· Great post-match action though. “You’re not mad?”
· I didn’t like Mike Adamle coming out with no clipboard. If he is going to be stilted and need assistance he could use the clipboard to look at notes. But if he has it all the time they can make fun of him for it, make it a character quirk, like Santino’s unibrow.
· Adding Rey makes sense. If Cena is really injured, which is a real shame, and they are firm on Orton being miles away, then Rey is the only real choice.
· I liked seeing the leg worked in the main event, offering some logic behind Kane. Sort of a twisted genius, I suppose. The match went a little long though, considering we got a DQ finish. I don’t mind the finish, but it was a long investment for that kind of outcome.

Raw Thoughts for August 18th

A few ongoing notes from watching Raw.

- Jericho was superb again. How is he more menacing in a suit? Exiting with no music was also a great touch.

- King says twice that the Cena v Batista match was one of the best matches he has ever seen, and that Batista would surely think that it was his greatest match ever. Look, I know I was more critical than most about the match, and I am happy to hold my hands up and say that if people enjoyed it then it was a good match, but it just sounds ridiculous building it up to that status. It was good, but nothing more.

- Cole says “A buzzsaw of emotion”. I don’t know if he means the arena or Batista....or what. That’s probably because ‘Buzzsaw of emotion’ makes no sense at all.

- Nice way to make a new Raw roster member look important – by running away to speak to John Cena. Must make Primo Colon feel dead special.

- Cole and Lawler are so fake and empty together. It is just a constant stream of plugs for WWE.com, WWE magazine, other affiliates and so forth.

- The women’s match looked overly scripted to me – at least there were certain spots where you could clearly see one girl waiting for another to hit their mark. Just slowed the match down and lessened the reality feeling of the match.

- Now I am watching this in England and on Tuesday afternoon, so I am not going to change the channel, but it strikes me that flashing up the graphic that more viewers watched Raw last week than Monday Night Football is self-defeating. There must be people who would see that and then think “oh yeah, the football is on, I wonder what the score is” and switch over to see.

- JBL squashes Noble. Boring to watch, and frankly shows how little they think of CM Punk that he has yet to be seen after winning his biggest match so far – and the show is in his hometown.

- By the way, a completely nonsensical ending. The referee allows Jamie to get beaten down, but doesn’t allow the pin. What, lying on his back for three seconds is too much punishment. Just get down and count.

- Terrible Raw so far.

- Adamle with a clipboard actually looks good. Kind of gives him an authority – he should carry it everywhere.

- The new concept for the title is idiocy. The “Scramble” just sounds so desperate and bush-league, no matter how many times they call it ‘innovative’.

- Why did Shane and Stephanie make Adamle say it? Why couldn’t it have been his idea, just like the Elimination Chamber was Eric Bischoff’s? This isn’t an Adamle original?

- Was it me or did Lillian take ages to say the tag team champions’ names?

- I liked seeing Ted do his father’s fist drop. Nice touch.

- Why must every interesting tag team get killed before they have a chance to shine? If we are supposed to believe them beating a team of Cena and Batista, why are they in a handicap match with one of their previous opponents. Cena doesn’t need building back up, this just brings the champs down. I know the champs got a lot of offence in, but them losing was unnecessary.

- Jerry says that it’s obvious that Jericho didn’t mean to hit Rebecca Michaels last night. Not obvious enough to you to say different earlier in the show, King.

- It’s also obvious, from seeing the footage from after Summerslam, that HBK forgot the coat he took to the arena.

- How in the name of Clarence Mason does D-Lo Brown get a title shot? Oh wait, not he doesn’t – Cole screwed up.

- As pissed off as I am with this show so far, I can’t help but smile at Santino. God that man is awesome.

- Hey, I got to see Trish too. Albeit in a 24/7 clip. This show has risen to about 2/10 so far.

- The best bit of the show so far. Kane does a promo which serves a function. With nice lighting, he explains why he attacked Rey Mysterio. We are even treated to a bit of continuity, as Batista emerges to attack Kane for his comments. I like that, because Batista and Rey are acknowledged friends on TV. Suspect this means Kane v Big Dave next week.

- Hmmm. Not crazy about the main event outcome, but at least Punk lost to a man who deserves it – Jericho – and it wasn’t completely clean.

- Cole finishes with another ludicrous statement. He said that Jericho was “basking in his irreverent glory” which doesn’t really mean anything. Cole just throws word together. I’m expecting next week to hear something like “Kane is a congenital statement” or “look at John Cena – he is a conflicting example of serendipity” – just nonsense. Remember JR’s voice ending a Raw – I miss it.

Just such a poor, poor, Raw. I’m hoping to put my thoughts into words later in the week, hopefully on The Sun’s site.