Raw Thoughts: October 12

· I hated that opening segment, with only a few exceptions.
· The phonecall to Michaels was really quite lame. Not funny, didn’t go anywhere, and even the plug for the book didn’t work.
· The Bragging Rights exposition did not work at all. Not in my mind, anyway. I was under the impression that there would be a bunch of matches on the show and whoever won each match went onto a team for the end of the show. That didn’t resemble what Jericho, the apparent Smackdown captain said. Nor did it sound like what Triple H said, especially when he told Show there were no spaces. If the team is already made up, then surely it doesn’t matter about the winners of the matches?
· I think the only bit I liked was when Jericho said he would fight Bob Barker anytime anyplace. Other than that even Chris couldn’t save this segment.
· The forced infighting between Show and Jericho was ludicrous. Why have Show say they are equals, then say he carries the team? I don’t want to see them wrestle, because at some point I’d like to see a team actually be a team for more than a couple of months.
· Making the match didn’t make sense. How was Triple H, and therefore guest host Nancy O’Dell, able to know that Show and Jericho would a) interrupt him and b) start bickering. She should have come out at that point and made the impromptu match.
· Most of all, I hated Triple H’s little burial of Smackdown. Are you kidding? Smackdown has been superior for a long while now, and I fail to see what business sense it makes for Triple H, a major babyface with influence over the minds of impressionable fans, to bury the show. And to say they have great wrestling, then cite Great Khali, is pathetic.
· I’ll allow the Big Show/Jericho match. At least it looked like a spat rather than a falling out.
· Oh my God, that Divas section was HIDEOUS.
· Goodness knows what Mickie has done to deserve that (although her matches haven’t been great lately). Unless she is injured I guess. The first match was terrible, and Jillian of all people gets a three-minute reign. To make matters worse, guest hosts are now trading, and Melina appears on Raw. To cap it off, Melina and Jillian botch the big move. Credit to them, though, because I’m assuming they called an audible and changed the finish.
· So Cena will face both members of Legacy in a Triple Threat? That would mean if he wins he would be in an iron match AND the seven-on-seven?
· Wait, I got that wrong. Apparently Cena has no real motivation here.
· The only redeeming feature of the triple threat was the finish. I liked Cody sneaking the win by pinning Ted and causing contention, and I liked Randy Orton slithering in and out of the ring. Other than that, it was the usual SuperCena garbage, followed by an announcement of Cena/Orton v Legacy. Just..........what?
· So we get to see Cena AGAIN, Legacy AGAIN......MVP and Swagger are in the ring while I’m typing this bit and....wait, it’s finished. A throwaway match lasting about four minutes. We have to see double Cena and Legacy, all of whom are over. But only a few seconds of MVP and Swagger, who need assistance.
· Kofi and Evan didn’t even get to start on TV? Just add this to the point above.
· As a contrived main event, that was just about passable. I guess the most important thing was that after all the double crossing and second guessing, Ted DiBiase was the one who emerged with the high ground. He pinned Orton with a surprise roll-up in the main event.
· Just an odd show. No logic, and flaws up the yin yang.

Raw Thoughts - Sept 21

· Triple H is opening Raw? Wow, when did that last happen. In a match I mean.
· An okay match, but really good booking post match. Legacy are being positioned well as a threat to DX. Even if they lose in the Cell, they are being treated as genuine threats, as an entity. The next step is getting themselves taking seriously as individual wrestlers.
· Santino is getting gayer. Still quite funny, but too camp.
· Oh my! Cedric said Wrestling. He won’t be invited back. Don’t say Wrestling, Ced. They don’t like that.
· Mickie looks.........all fixed
· How much sense does it take to bury the Divas champ like that?
· Alicia is not the greatest worker in the world, but that Scissors kick is AWESOME.
· Miz, Swagger, Kofi.....United States belt........that makes no sense at all. Not one iota. Nonsense.
· I don’t know who Cedric the Entertainer is.......and I don’t know who Reverend Al Sharpton is either.
· The best bit of Raw was Lillian’s promo. I would have totally brought out Viscera, though.
· I like it when main events have something on them that affect next week’s show.
· What a good guest host Koko B Ware was.

Raw Thoughts - September 14

· Really solid opening segment between Batista and Randy Orton. I never really bought the retirement, but I suspect many did. I may be wrong, but I think Batista actually hurt his right arm, not his left one. As I recall they did the attack on Raw on Batista’s left arm, but his was really hurt the other side. So the fact that he had the brace on his left suggested to me it wasn’t needed.
· Was it just me or did Trish seem a bit lost? Maybe I’m being harsh. Interesting note about Barker “nearly making Jericho cry” – a little back reference to Wrestlemania 20?
· OK tag match. I liked seeing Swagger get a pinfall to boost him a little. There was no reaction for Primo at all.
· Mickie James on Alicia Fox: “Every dog has her day”. King quickly asserted that she wasn’t referring to Ms Fox as a dog. She said no. Good job too. The Korean Ms Kim would eat her alive. Ahem.
· Mickie v the Wedding Planner coming soon then.......
· I thought Mickie was great as guest commentator by the way. I like people doing that. I think they should have someone on guest commentary more often, especially newer blood trying help get their character over.
· Nice little seg with Trish being faced in her office by Beth and Jericho. Nice interplay between Jericho and Stratus, although interestingly no namedrop for Captain Charisma, who was instrumental in the ‘break-up’. Nice to see a little nod to history though.
· I hope Trish chooses Santino as her partner! Or at least they have a seg where he is campaigning to be her partner.
· I was really disappointed that HBK v Ted didn’t have a finish, but I guess I understand why.
· Oh wow, Hornswoggle wins again (note sarcasm). Chavo asks “What do I got to do?” Firstly, learn English, Pedro, because it’s “What do I have to do?” but secondly I got the feeling he was addressing that to more than just the little midget fella he’s been wrestling for the last seventeen years or thereabouts.
· I get whole thing of Trish having a win in her hometown, but it strikes me it would have been a big thing for Beth to beat her and use it to have an achievement to boast of, rather than Trish getting a fun, but ultimately fruitless, win.
· Ordinary Batista v Orton match. Actually an ordinary Raw overall. Nothing to write home about, although the initial Batista head fake was quite neat. If someone came up to you tomorrow and asked you what the story was from Raw, what would you say? Batista to Smackdown, and they announced a couple of matches we knew were happening anyway for HiaC.

Raw Thoughts: September 7

· So I guess Bruce Forsyth will be guest host in the UK?
· “I wish I had a refrigerator for every one of you” might be one of the oddest opening lines I have ever heard on a wrestling broadcast.
· To American readers, you should know that in the UK we have no idea who this guy Barker is.
· I can’t wait to see him come off the top rope, mind you.
· Santino coming out of the crowd was hilarious. I could watch him for hours.
· I’d have a game show every week.
· Not as good a match as last week with MVP and Jericho, but I was impressed wit how they played the crowd with some believable near falls, getting a tremendous reaction. MVP is starting to become a bigger player.
· Oh my Lord – an actual, real match for Chavo??? Surely not.
· I suppose it was too good to true to hope that Hornswoggle would stay hidden, but at least it is a step in the right direction.
· AJ Piersinski (that’ll be spelled wrong, don’t write in) is a TNA guy isn’t he? Why didn’t I read about his defection on the sheets?
· That Santino section of him winning the Price is Right was a little dull. A little too much Barker.
· Uh-oh. Big Show and Mark Henry was also a bit of a drag, and now it seems to be a sit-down interview with Josh Matthews? I enjoyed the start, but its starting to drag now.
· I’m fairly certain that Triple H just did a gay innuendo and then, without irony, said that he’s going to get ready to suck it.
· An extremely odd decision to put Masters in the main event with Orton, yet no Carlito, Miz or Swagger on the show. The last named being the most obvious candidate.
· Quite a slow main event, and another bizarre moment as Orton just hovered around the stage for a couple of minutes.
· The backstage brawl with Legacy and DX made sense, but you almost feel it should have happened a couple of weeks ago, and then the stipulation added because of it.
· In the end, the Bob Barker stuff got boring, what him plugging a book and talking about his career. I guess it helps if you had heard of the guy before last Monday when they said he’d be hosting this week.

Raw Thoughts - August 25

· Interesting to open with explaining who the ‘fan’ is. I thought that might have been a hook through the show.
· Hey, Vince is out here. Maybe he’ll fire Lillian for last night.
· That should have been Edge and Christian’s fat Elvis.
· Cole said it was the Honky Tonk Man, which is as funny a thing as Cole has said.
· That was largely quite funny, but admittedly it did drag on a bit. There will plenty of people who say it is self-indulgent DX nonsense, but I genuinely find them amusing, and we forget this show is supposed to be entertaining and, as WWE say and genuinely mean, about putting smiles on faces.
· That was funny to dress Jillian up as Marilyn Monroe, but she actually sang TOO well.
· The trouble with Mayweather having that many guys with him is that he looks weak. Wrestlers don’t have ten men for backup, so you build this guy as a really tough fighter, but Freddie Prinze jnr and Jeremy Piven didn’t bring all these men.
· Shaq and Floyd v Jericho and Show? Maybe not.
· The trouble is with Mayweather is he is a natural heel. To have Jericho and Show after him and MVP backing him up somehow feels wrong.
· To MVP’s credit though, that was a good babyface promo telling Jericho to shut up.
· I’m not too embarrassed to tell you that the last time I saw MVP and Henry together was at the Wrestlemania Reading Challenge. Oh, I get to go to all the big things, you know.
· Crowd were HOT for MVP. Maybe he is nearly ready to step up.
· End the pain with Chavo and Hornswoggle, please.
· I like the fact that they said “you never know what to expect with Randy Orton” at the very second he slapped on a rear chin lock. You can always expect that, can you not?
· A bit of a nothing main event. You get the feeling they might just fill the next couple of weeks until Breaking Point.
· Interestingly, they didn’t announce next week’s guest host did they?

Raw Thoughts - July 27

· Blimey, that Shaq is a big lad isn’t he?
· Shaq shows more charisma and ability to cut a promo in his first sentence than ZZ Top did all last week.
· Would Shaq O’Neal really book a “beat the Clock challenge?” Really? It’s one thing having guest hosts and pretending they are booking, but it’s quite another booking the same old concepts and attributing them to NBA stars.
· Loved the face off with Big Show. Made sense to do it, and Jericho was priceless refusing to fight Shaq when he hadn’t been challenged.
· Good opening seg. Don’t like the beat the clock idea, but Shaq was very at home on the mic, did some decent babyface schtick.
· Part of me wonders if Henry might win this. The way things have gone lately, it would make sense to have him face Orton at Summerslam while Trips and Cena sort themselves out. I’m not saying I want to see that, but that’s the corner they’ve booked themselves into.
· Massive flaw in the Beat the Clock format. Shouldn’t you put 10 men in the game, rather than five. You are simply telling everybody that Henry, Triple H, Cena, MVP and Swagger will win. You could book the same matches, but just say whomever wins get to post the time.
· Love the Ludvig Borga sign. There should be more obscure 90s wrestler signs.
· That was as good a Mark Henry match as I’ve seen in a long time.
· I’ll give them this about the beat the clock concept. We might be getting a fair amount of wrestling. That went nearly seven minutes, which despite not being an Iron Man match was longer than most Raw matches. We could end up with significantly more wrestling than usual this week.
· Better than average women’s match, probably because they gave Mickie, Gail and Beth plenty of time in the ring. Subtle annoyance from Mickie that Gail tagged herself in. Seems Gail v Mickie for Summerslam?
· I spoke too soon. Perhaps it’s not to be all predictable as to who wins. MVP draws with the returning Chris Masters, whose modified music made me think it was Goldust at first.
· Poor old Kendrick. He could be used as a talented jobber getting ten minute matches out of people, but nope, simply a comedy act getting beaten in seconds.
· I loved the attack on Triple H. Not because it might have put the kibosh on his chances, but it was unexpected and a bit different. I might have actually gone a little further and had DiBiase run away and not talk to Trips, with the camera only getting a sleeting glimpse, so you weren’t sure if it was him or not.
· Really enjoyed that Triple H v Cody Rhodes match. Not catch-as-catch-can classic but it was full of psychology. They injured the leg, and Cody continued to use LOGIC and follow it through. Triple H was chasing the win and clock, and the heels got the job done. That is really, really solid booking. Not writing, BOOKING.
· “How did you get some many ‘z’s?” is one of the greatest lines I’ve heard in ages. Santino was BACK this week.
· Actually popped a little bit when Bourne won. Not that I dislike Swagger, but because that was a legit shock, legit surprise and a really nice feelgood moment. I take back everything I said about the ‘stupid’ system of Beat the Clock, as it is actually proving rather effective thus far. This is a high quality Raw.
· Great Miz promo before the match, having a go at the crowd but linking to the match itself. He just has a great manner that makes you want to see him get his backside handed to him. Vince even got a little shot in Obama, which I’m sure he was delighted about.
· Actually, what I am I saying, of course it doesn’t absolve the Beat the Clock system. Why doesn’t Evan Bourne now have the fastest time? What kind of loopy system gives the opportunity for a man to beat Miz or Carltio to get a title shot, but beating Swagger doesn’t do anything for Bourne.
· I can’t believe I was actually hoping for a comprehensive Mark Henry win, but it would have preferable, at least so that someone different got a run at Orton. It would have done so much good. Someone fresh(ish) at the top, a new babyface promoted, and Orton could have beaten him clean and looked strong again, rather than Triple H and Cena’s bitch, which is all he has become.
· A just there main event, really, with the excuse of putting Shaq into that face-to-face situation with Show, with the hope for WWE that it’ll be on Sportscenter. Bit different from the face off with Mayweather, eh Paul?
· Plot holes abound and a frustrating booking trick for Summerslam, but otherwise an enjoyable Raw. Shaq was a very good guest host.

Raw Thoughts: February 23

· Really looking forward to this Raw. Solid show last week, did really good numbers, and this is built well for whether Triple H will show up, whether Koslov will show up, the HBK/JBL match and any progress with Cena, Jericho and co.
· Decent enough opening segment, to set up event which were to come. I thought it ran out of steam a bit when Cena tried to get too jokey after having a serious moment.
· Good call to make Vickie temporary GM. I like the idea that wrestlers should jump between shows with more freedom at this time of year to build momentum towards Mania.
· Did you see Big Show cough when he came through Edge’s pyro smoke? Nice touch, that.
· Orton turns up with Legacy in a flash car. Is it just me or is this the first time in years that Raw actually feels like something big. Like in the old days when Austin/McMahon and the attitude era ruled. We’ve started the show with Cena, Edge and Show. Three big names. Then Orton turns up and you are thinking about whether Triple H will show up in pursuit. Jericho to come, HBK/JBL to come, in a situation to do with Undertaker. Money in the bank qualifier. This feels legitimately like a big show, pardon the pun.
· Yeah, show the sights of downtown Nashville. Maybe show the headquarters of TNA, and say it’s home to J-E-Double F, haha, J-A-Double R E-Double T.
· Why is Roberts doing the announcing? I can’t stand that guy. He doesn’t speak like a real human, it scares me.
· “Every person that has won Money in the Bank has become World Champion.” Says Cole. No they haven’t. Kennedy didn’t. He got injured, lost the briefcase to Edge, who won the title.
· John Morrison hits a shooting star press from the apron to the outside – and it’s during the advert?!? Someone in this equation is an idiot – either Morrison for doing it at that point, and agent for booking it at that point, or a production guy for going to an ad at the wrong point or not telling the wrestlers.
· Not a bad triple threat. I didn’t care for the contrived nature of some of the spots, and unless they are doing something with Miz and Morrison splitting, I don’t really see why Punk couldn’t have just got a one-on-one victory, but it was serviceable, and credit should be given for letting the match go for a while. Not the usual Raw three-minute wonder.
· Hey Shawn, well done, you beat JBL. Your reward is to try and get a half-decent match out of Vlad Koslov. All the best, sir.
· I thought the video package about last year’s Wrestlemania was a build to bringing Jericho out to talk about Flair again. Disappointed not to see Jericho so far.
· Pointless, that. Knox annihilates Noble. This doesn’t help the likes of Kane or Knox. It just makes Noble look a chump. You are expecting him to last seconds, so if someone took, say, four minutes to beat Noble, you’d think this guy was useless, even though he won. And we don’t need someone to get slaughtered every week, because we already have Santino.
· That should have been a great segment between Jericho and Steamboat. Ricky started slow and got better in his promo, and his message ended up very strong. However, the live crowd in Nashville didn’t seem to embrace him. I don’t know if the demographic wasn’t old enough or educated in wrestling enough to remember him, but his reaction didn’t seem to be at the level it should have been.
· That Cena v Chavo match (“Match”) was a farce. It is ludicrous to do stuff like that. It helps no-one. It doesn’t elevate Cena, it doesn’t roll the story along. It just makes Chavo look like an idiot.
· A great show has stagnated during the two hours, generally. Orton and Trips need to pull out a big final seg to grip for next week.
· Well.....not bad. I’m glad Trips didn’t get to Orton, because it makes for much better programming if he can’t catch up to his quarry, but must instead take several weeks chasing him down, culminating at the big one.
· That ending is going to get a lot of stick, I can feel it, but I don’t think it was that bad. The Shane stuff was ludicrous, and the only reason this will get so much flak is because it comes off of those mistakes. Hunter chasing maniacally and Orton begging off is fine. Heels are allowed to do this. Orton needs to get at Hunter at some point in the next two weeks, with some sort of three on one attack, maybe even bloodying The Game. Then you have a couple of weeks where he gets Cody then Ted, but Orton escapes. I certainly wouldn’t have them wrestle each other in any manner. It will heighten the tension far more.

Raw Thoughts - 26 Jan

· Strong Raw opening with sound reasoning and a new approach to simultaneous apology and defiance.
· The only negative thing to the opening Orton speech was that he could have been cheered for what he did. However, the “you suck” chant seemed to put paid to that.
· Interesting that Orton admitted to being the father of a newborn child. Didn’t he (kayfabe) sleep with Kelly Kelly a month or two ago?
· Pretty basic filler with the Mizorrison v Cryme Tyme match. Very standard stuff – I have little, either positive or negative, to add.
· Why would anyone sanction the HBK v Cena match to let JBL into the Chamber? And why didn’t JBL at least attempt to explain the actions of his employee during the title match last night?
· Do you know what? I nearly wrote down that I thought this would be a perfect sort of match for Kofi to win and get a helping hand to the next level. But I decided it was never going to happen, so left it.
· I’m really pleased that they’ve chosen to put Kofi over Kane there. It gives him a short-term boost and adds his brand of wrestling into the Chamber match. Put Kane in the chamber and he won’t win anyway, so you may as well have Kofi, who also obviously won’t win but will offer some more interesting fare.
· Rourke v Jericho? That’s not the bigger story for me. I’m more interested in the fact that Jericho kept talking about Flair. If Rourke gets in the ring is Flair going to be in his corner? Does that mean Naitch will be at the Hall of Fame for Austin?
· A slightly weak start to a Jericho v Rourke feud. After seeing Mayweather get involved like that last year, it might have been cool to put Rourke in the ring and have Jericho attack him or for Jericho to somehow wangle an appearance on a TV show and attack Rourke there, for extra publicity.
· I think they don’t know what to do with JBL and HBK now. They’ve done the double superkick and don’t know why, and are floundering. That exchange with JBL, HBK and Cena offered nothing.
· Classic stuff from Santino – “JR, have you been working out?”
· Spectacularly idiocy from the commentators, acting like they couldn’t work out who attacked Melina. Well who else would it be? That is a stupid, stupid move to let the announcers do that, because it means the audience won’t trust anything they say, since the audience will have worked out it was Rosa straight away.
· Mysterio in the Chamber makes perfect sense. That makes it Rey, Cena and Kofi.
· I liked the fact that they played up the fact that Jericho and Punk actually had a history rather than ignoring it like they sometimes do, but you just got the feeling the match couldn’t really be any good because it was so rushed.
· I can’t decide if I like that ending to Raw or not. I don’t like the fact that Shane was made to look tougher than all three of Legacy. I assume we are looking at Shane v Orton then at No Way Out. Was that the ‘bigger plan’ or is there more to come from Steph and Shane. What was the purpose of the roster standing on the stage?
· More questions than answers leading to next week, which I suppose is a good thing. Now looking forward to seeing what the Hardys have to say on Smackdown.

Raw Thoughts - January 12

· Jericho is one of the best antagonists I have ever seen. The brilliant thing is that pretty much everything he says makes sense. There is no excessive noise-making that a heel often provides. No more “dirty, filthy, disgusting, brutal, bottom-feeding, trashbag hoes” anymore.
· The “You’re fired” thing was ridiculous, though. She just named the guy Superstar of the Year. Some businesswoman she is, then, firing the guy about a month later.
· I like Mizorrison, and I think they are potential stars of the future, especially Morrison. However, there is a danger of over-saturation. They are on every show at the moment.
· That second DQ finish will rile many, but I actually quite like that twist. I wasn’t expecting it. I was anticipating a Regal victory with some brass knuckles behind the ref’s back or something. Will they squeeze this into the Rumble card?
· OK, maybe not. Sorry Steph.
· Wow, they’ve gone early on the Hall of Fame announcement for Austin. Is this paving the way to bring him back and sort a match out??
· Interesting plot twist to and story development with the whole Orton + Legacy thing, but the problem is with having DiBiase join back with Orton and Rhodes is that no-one cares about Manu and Snuka. The audience reaction was nil.
· Nice little twist to the Rosa Mendez storyline. I’m not crazy about fan interaction angles, but sometimes they work out for the best – see Santino.
· Terrific main event. Certain combinations just seem to click in the ring, and Shawn Michaels always brings the best out of John Cena. Really, really good match which had you guessing about the winner, wondering if JBL would get involved, whether Michaels would do something dastardly or maybe turn on his ‘boss’. Great stuff.
· Really looking forward to next week. Vince’s return should be explosive, we need to have some development on Chris Jericho, Regal v Punk will hopefully get a chance to have the match they want to have. Should be good.

Raw Thoughts December 15

· Re: the open, I love that kind of Raw segment. Not the divas match, but the aftermath. I know it didn’t really achieve much right now, but it’s intrigue. As long as it’s not just random stuff being thrown against the wall, I’m ok with it.
· Score one for me. I said months ago that “Deuce” would be a part of the second gen stable.
· People wonder why Duggan is still around. One reason is that people shouting “hooooo” creates a good atmosphere. You saw the other reason in this show. He can draw sympathy. Easy heat for Jericho, and Duggan just stood there and looked sad.
· Insta-feud time? Kelly tells Kane there is someone she likes and Kane goes after them. Hope she doesn’t say Rey Mysterio.
· Maybe it’s Lawler. That would fit his MO.
· OK, I wasn’t expecting Miz. I was thinking in my head of the babyface roster and had come up with Kofi, so I wasn’t surprised to see Kane. I was surprised to see him drop Mr Mizanin, though. There is interesting history there, if they want to refer to it, since Extreme Exposé, as they were, took a shine to Miz, although Kelly Kelly ended up gravitating towards Balls Mahoney. Or are they suggesting that KK is smart enough to say someone other than her beau to stitch them up?
· Great Tag Title match by the way. And kudos to them for not having Kane interfere midway through and actually allowing there to be a clean ending.
· Isn’t Dolph Ziggler just a mini Randy Orton? I mean, if you are going to be a mini-anyone then Orton isn’t a bad one, but two on the same show? Doesn’t work.
· Did I, or did I not, say on Sunday night that the JBL/HBK segment at Armageddon should have been on Raw? And now it is. Couldn’t they have saved it a night?
· This is why we need a war again. We need wrestling on in two places at once on a Monday. Here in the UK it would make little difference, but it would prevent segments like this taking place. In the old days, all the people that saw that last night would switch over to Nitro. (Or more likely vice versa since you’d imagine Nitro doing that back then)
· So she didn’t say The Miz. Maybe she said The Tazz and Kane misheard it.
· Not a bad main event, and a good way of making The Legacy known as a unit. To me the most interesting element is going to come with DiBiase returning and where he fits in. They just have to be really careful to get the right balance between being aggravating and being boring. They really strut to the ring with no facial expression and walk very slowly. I understand they are being cool and menacing, but many will just say boring.
· Good Raw overall, coming off a strong PPV. I might have thrown in Jeff Hardy in for a little extra pop, but he wasn’t missed. Interesting to see the next two weeks worth of matches offered up as bait for the Christmas period and running into traditionally one of the biggest PPVs in the calendar.