Raw Is Awesome!

Both WrestleMania main events are now set, 2 months in advance! WWE generally produces their best television in the months leading up to WrestleMania and last night was no exception.

For the first time in a long time, all three brands feel fresh and have a new sense of direction. It is also no coincidence that the strong television is being written around a strong world title, or group of world titles in this case. There are no stupid angles, no ridiculous storylines, just a group of men that each want to be the world champion. When the title is the focal point of the show, fans buy into feuds much more. TNA really needs to pay attention.

"Raw" began however with a minor "NO". The Undertaker announcing his opponent for WrestleMania should not have been so rushed, he didn't even cut a promo. To me it felt slightly anti-climactic, but Undertaker does now have 8 weeks to cut promos on "SmackDown!".

Speaking of promos, how about that Ric Flair.

In the best promo so far in 2007, Ric Flair did as close to a shoot promo on Carlito as you can get. Carlito has been recently gaining the reputation as being lazy and only performing at a high level when he's in with a strong opponent. Whether this leads to Carlito turning heel and facing Flair at WrestleMania is unclear. To me, Flair needs to face another legend in such a large event. He needs to face someone of near equal ability on the microphone. If I was booking, it would be;

Ric Flair versus JBL. Worth it for the promos alone.

The burial of the ECW originals continued this week with Balls Mahoney getting squashed by Umaga. It looks as if this feud between the ECW "originals" and the "new blood" could potentially lead to several more WWE releases. Sabu, Balls Mahoney and Sandman have been on thin ice for the last few months and I don't like their chances of being employed by WWE after this feud has run its course.

I found it a bit strange for Melina and Mickie James to have a title match right after we just saw them act as managers in the segment before. It seems this division has been placed on a lower-priority level since Trish left and little thought is being put into their segments.

Mickie and Melina do have legit heat between each other dating back to their days in Ohio Valley Wrestling and watching them have a sloppy match shows how much heat there still is. They seemed to be out of position on a few spots which is usually a sign of trying to make your opponent's offense look bad, even though the whole match will suffer.

The tag-team titles need to be placed around the waists of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas immediately. Matches between the two teams have no meaning if the titles are not the focal point. Not that I haven't liked Shelton Benjamin's promos about negative Black stereotypes, but it's hard not to laugh when his tag-team partner is sporting corn rolls.

However the most ridiculous hair comes courtesy of Jerry "The King" Lawler. That was the ugliest hairpiece I have ever seen on a man. As if his commentary wasn't ugly enough, he now sees fit to make his hair match.

Unfortunately, I don't have the scores for "Tha O League" at this time, but we will be posting them later on today.

Share |