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4.08.2008

Tha Raw Report: How To Kill Momentum

Sometimes in life things just don’t go the right way. When people have control of them and they still go the wrong way you begin to point fingers. I don’t know how many people, but I’m sure a lot of people are pointing fingers at the “Raw” writers right now.

Right now one could argue that the WWE is white hot, coming off of an incredible WrestleMania, and coming off a Ric Flair tribute that even though it drew some criticism, it still more than satisfied even the most jaded of “smarks.” So why kill it and drop the ball completely with your main event?

It was nice to see Val Venis on television, and the amazing thing is that the dude still gets a good pop when he’s on TV so infrequently. I guess the agents in the back said, “We’re sorry Eddie, we know we had you put over Batista at WrestleMania, so we’re going to let you start a new winning streak, because he’s that bad.

I’m convinced that Val Venis could make Maryse look like the second coming of Ric Flair. He’s such a professional that it sucks to know he never got the push he was capable of having. A tag team title run, European run and two short shots with the IC strap don’t seem like enough.

One thing this week that really, really shocked me was the consistency, if not the parity of the booking in the tag team ranks. Does this mean that we are going to get an actual tag team division? Or are we just simply watching some tag team matches to appease those of us that care?

London and Kendrick win two weeks in a row, when several weeks ago Spanky was walking out on London. Some things never cease to amaze me. Trevor Murdoch has slimmed down considerably, and with two straight losses for he and Cade do I smell a split and singles runs for the two of them? If so maybe he’ll Stan Dupp.

The best part of the night though, Santino Marella getting his first pinfall victory since…Chris Masters? The celebration he put on after the win was so funny that I’m almost positive he won’t win again for another six months. That’s ok though, because he will stay on TV.

It was nice to see Beth Phoenix back in singles action on this week’s “Raw.” I guess having her go over on Maria is a nice way to get the stink of “BunnyMania” off of her. I know the word dream match is thrown around, so I won’t use it, but I would like to see Beth Phoenix vs. Victoria. Don’t tease me with Phoenix vs. Victoria vs. Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim.

Heel vs. Heel main events are a hard sell, but it’s been done and it’s been done effectively. Heel vs. Face vs. Heel triple threat main events are an easier sell so I understand. Heel vs. Face vs. Heel vs. Face fatal four ways are overkill.

Triple H coming into the fray isn’t that bad because it never hurts to have an over “face” involved in the match, but what you can’t do is continue to let Triple H bury guys. People out there who aren’t “smartened up” believe what he tells them, and what he told them was that Orton and JBL weren’t worth a shit.

I know that JBL and Orton play their heel gimmicks better than a lot of guys, and aren’t really going to suffer, but there are seemingly no limitations on who Hunter will bury and how he will bury them. If he ever gets paired with an up and comer and he buries them that way no telling if they’ll ever recover. Oh yeah, the Spirit Squad, Johnny, Nick, Mitch and Mikey.

After the initial handicap match, which was about as predictable as Bret Hart finishing sequence we get John Cena. I heard a collective pulling back of the hammers on guns across the country. I thought that maybe, just maybe we’d get a John Cena free main event.

We get another handicap match. A match I might add, that made absolutely no sense from about the midway point in the match. I understand that Hunter and JBL don’t get along, that makes sense. Heel and babyface a time honored wrestling tradition.

We get Randy Orton on the outside a man who is a heel hell bent on keeping his championship and ensuring that the Orton-Era goes nowhere. The message that was conveyed to us tonight however was that the three of them are so dumb that they can’t put their differences aside long enough to eliminate John Cena and keep Backlash to themselves.

The WWE came up with yet another way of allowing John Cena to overcome the odds. Considering that H never got in the ring and Orton cost JBL the match. Believe when I tell you this, I’ve watched the movie Rudy around ten times, and it’s more unpredictable than a John Cena match.

I will yet again praise Chris Jericho, and I’m sure Donnie will pick him apart again. This week’s "Highlight Reel" was great. Jericho did his part at getting the heat started. HBK carried it from there, and Batista actually did a decent job on his promo.

Batista and Michaels are most likely going to work a few matches, and even though Michaels is getting up there in age, Butista will be a good barometer of how well Michaels can still carry guys.

Don't forget to check out the sequel to this article by Christopher Casur!

Tha Results:
*Umaga def. Val Venis
*Mickie James & Ashley def. Melina & Jillian
*London & Kendrick def. Cade & Murdoch
*Triple H def. JBL & Orton
*Santino & Carlito def. Rhodes & Holly
*Beth Phoenix def. Maria
*John Cena def. JBL & HHH


7 comments: on "Tha Raw Report: How To Kill Momentum"

Anonymous said...

It is nice to see the Tag-Team divison again but I fear that it is only a matter of time that once it finally comes back and is over again HHH will be put in a handicap match with all the current tag-teams and win clean.

Anonymous said...

I O'd for Val back on T.V too, shame he always gets buried and ends up back working Heat. Sometimes I worry tho, with guys like Harry Smith and Paul Burchill not getting any Raw T.V time, Why are guys like Val getting that exposure when they need to be pushing the younger talent?

It's also great to see them building the Tag Division again, and seemingly on both Raw and Smackdown! I Really miss the Tag division. Classic teams like Demolition, LoD, The Midnight Rockers all helped to make me a solid wrestling fan back when Hulkamania was running wild and I hated Hogan so bad, even as a mark!

I have to totally disagree about the Fatal4way however. How long has it been since the title was defended in this type of match? Also it gives JBL a mini push even though he doesn't stand a chance of holding the title, he helps to give the match some much needed validation as he is the 'longest reigning champion in Smackdown history' and the Marks will eat it up!

D.J.B. said...

Considering a few weeks ago at Mania it was defended in a triple threat and Night of Champions last year it was defended in a fatal 5 way Championship challenge or some bullshit...if you're going to put it in a 4 man why does Cena need to be in it? He doesn't!

D.J.B. said...

Want to know just how bad Raw was? It got a 3.3 rating. You can attribute some of that to the NCAA finals.

Anonymous said...

So what your sayin is the title hasn't been defended in a Fatal4Way in a while as none of those matches were 4ways. So my point still stands. Also if your going to say Cena shouldn't be in the match then you need to have a better reason than the hate most smarks have for him, especially since the couple of shows his pop has split the audience much less.

I don't hate on Cena as much as most folk on tha Show. I get it that his Character is stale, his selling aint the best and the STFU is probably the worst submission move on the planet at the moment. but you gotta give the guy props for running with what he has and giving it 100% all the way.

D.J.B. said...

The point really doesn't stand. You can't throw a fatal four way in for the sake of getting John Cena in a match. It doesn't make sense to keep throwing guys into the match. Vince may think Cena can draw but you look at the numbers and the buy rates you see that his drawing power is right above Charlie Haas and right below CSI reruns. Also if Cena was such a "strong" draw he could do stand alones and it'd be one on one's all the time. His last two title matches have been more than one guy.

Cena may give 110% and that's fine. Good for him, give him a hard workers ribbon or a trophy or something, but that does not change the fact that he cannot work. He gave away the kick at Mania and Dan wasn't the only guy to see that. He took the pedigree and immediately looked back at Orton and turned his head the other way.

Being a puppet will take you a long way apparently, because there are probably only a handful of guys who are worse, one of them being Khali.

Anonymous said...

Not a bad offering, why can't they do that more often?