Damn that man can talk. Damn that man can work. Damn, that man is the World Heavyweight Champion. That man is the man who vowed to Save_Us late last year. That man is Big Daddy Donnie's favorite worker of all time alongside Bret Hart. That man is Chris Jericho. In all seriousness though, Chris Jericho played perfectly the part of heel Champion on "Raw" this week.The events of last Sunday night's Unforgiven PPV were a mystery to me until the results were posted online. I didn't watch the PPV, or Pay For View whichever because it was the first week of the NFL season.
When I first saw them I thought I read it wrong, as a matter of fact I did because it was posted wrong. Jericho was listed as winning the unsanctioned match first. I do like the move of making Jericho champ. He's a heel which provides a change of pace and he can hold the belt until they're ready to put it back on Punk and run with the Orton/Punk feud. Chris Jericho is by the way one of the top heels the E has right now.
Don't give me, "well anyone working against Michaels should draw heel heat." Yes they should, but you know what, they don't always. Did Chris Masters? Nope, nothing against him, nothing against him at all really, but he got crickets in that feud. Did the Spirit Squad get a big reaction? Nope. Batista's reaction was so mixed you couldn't tell what was what, as was with Cena, but Jericho is different. Jericho gets a rafter rattling response and at this point the E needs that. Other than Mark Henry, and only when he's positioned with Matt Hardy do you get that.
Jericho can go toe-to-toe with Michaels on the mic. Not many can. Jericho has long been considered a great mic man, and that won't change. As a heel he's almost seamless. Everyone else stutters or stumbles. Don't give me that they're nervous, these guys make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. They're professionals, they aren't in Jim Johnson's Public Speaking 101 over at Eerie Community College folks. They've been groomed for this. Jericho is head and shoulders above them, so what's they're excuse? They just aren't as good, there is no excuse.
On a much lighter note, damn Layla is fine. The jeans and tank top she was wearing tonight, holy shit. She's top five on the planet. Mickie James is right there, but Layla, there's just something about her. While on the subject of women, Candice Michelle will face Beth Phoenix for the Women's championship at No Mercy. Whooptie frickin' shit.
She's more fragile than a pair of flea market sunglasses. Put her on "SmackDown" with Michelle, Maryse, Maria and the other Butterfly division girls. Move Nattie to "Raw" and have a real women's division on one show and a butterfly division on another.
Jamie Noble and William Regal put on three solid matches on three recent editions of "Raw." They weren't given much time but they still got the point across and served their purpose. If you haven't seen Jamie Noble really work YouTube his James Gibson RoH matches.
Watch the Gibson/Punk match if you can. William Regal does more with less than almost anyone in the business. In twelve words he got a reaction. Eleven if fairy tales is supposed to be hyphenated. Much love to Layla for being scared and going with him and still looking at Noble. Props to the cameraman for the view of her going up the ramp.
Charlie Haas. Nothing else really needs to be said. Charlie Haas is the man. I love this gimmick. The past three weeks dude has brought nothing but laughs and decent matches. I really wish the crack creative team could find him something other than jobbing, but Gerwitz is too busy carrying Vince's bag to be really productive so I'll be happy with him having TV time at the moment. A victory by countout is the best thing that's happened to him in the ring in weeks.
I want someone to explain to me this, I thought the Talent Exchange Program was between "SmackDown" and ECW. Well are ECW and "Raw" traveling together? Decent match between Bourne, Mastrio, and MnM. Why though does he cut his promos in spanish? The spanish speaking audience is largely on "SmackDown" which begs the question why they moved him anyway.
By the way in Fort Wayne, Indiana the spanish speaking population is about 6%, and I'm guessing those 6% weren't all in the building so people were just cheering because they thought, "well he's saying spanish stuff so it must be cool or he's being a badass...YAY!"
Did the WWE decide just last night to keep the Mastrio/Kane thing going? By the way, did they ever shit the bed with the Kane mask thing? Shouldn't that have been in the bag? What a failure on the part of the creative team. The week before the Rey Mysterio mask came out of the bag the crowd would have been apeshit for Kane's mask, now though, it got no reaction. Oops, guess they screwed that up.
The second generation stable is taking off and it's great. Rhodes, DiBiase and, er, Samoan all appear to have promise, no exceptions. Speaking of second generation, Randy Orton is a centerpiece of a show, but even while he is without a doubt a heel, people can't help but cheer him. They also can't turn on his mic either. Orton cuts a decent promo but he has his stutters still pop up. Another instance of heels who you know aren't nervous unless your diet consists of Marijuana and meth.
O Show favorite Santino Marella also adds another week on the Honk-A-Meter. The Honk-a-donk man had a 64 week run with it, and Santino Marella has held it for a very impressive three weeks. Perez Hilton can blog about it, and Randy Orton had best know that it's impressive, because it is impressive. Santino is gold. The combination of Marella and Phoenix is great, and Santino's new gear is great as well. Nice win in a quick match.
I won't cover the Batista/Jericho/JBL match because Batista matches don't really need to be covered, but if Jericho keeps the belt past next week and he goes into a feud with Batista, dear God help us all. Batista doesn't need this spot. Use him somewhere else. Don't make Jericho drag Batista to another good match. By the way though, another way that Y2J has saved us, the Champion and championship are featured in a main event.
Quick results...
*Beth Phoenix def. Mickie James
*William Regal def. Jamie Noble
*CHL (Charlie Haas) def. JBL by countout
*Evan Bourne & Rey Mastrio def. MnM
*Manu-DiBiase-Rhodes def. Cryme Tyme-Kofi Kingston
*Santino Marella def. Snitsky Santino will reach four weeks on the Honk-A-Meter
*Chris Jericho & JBL def. Batista
5 comments: on "Tha Raw Report: We've Finally Been Saved"
And don't forget... next week features Jericho vs. Punk for the title in a steel cage! What do you think it'll be, free-TV classic or schmoz?
"Batista doesn't need this spot. Use him somewhere else."
i can and will say the same thing to jericho, he doesnt need the belt and his promos have got to me, im not a fan of this jericho i cant buy him to be so seriously thats not what made me his fan its a turn off to me at least.
I think what you're saying srr is that you don't like him being a serious heel because you like the comedic heel. If so I can understand that, but what you need to realize that this speaks more to my point. He's trying to be a heel he doesn't want your cheers he wants to be booed, that's the ideal reaction. This also shows tremendous depth to his character and to his abilities.
Jericho does need this spot. Orton's not healthy and there isn't another heel the E has right now that could have pulled that off.
CJF: I pray that it's a free-TV classic because that was my immediate thought but after seeing Roidtista and Jericho stare one another down after this weeks show it'll be a schmoz and Batista will disgrace the title once again.
Four Words:
Bring Back Brad Rheingans!
I thought Raw was pretty decent coming off all the scramble matches. May not have agreed with how Jericho got the belt but in the context of things it does make sense. It certainly shocked people who did not see the PPV to see him coming out with the belt to start the show. I do wonder how the cage match with Punk will go. I could be a great match or one big flop.
Santino is gold again this week. His Honk-O-Meter promos are truly classic. He got Snisky this week. The funniest moment in the match for me was Snisky going to pounce on a downed Santino and you hear Santino scream Omigosha! Funny as hell.
If Randy Orton is putting together his second generation faction I gotta say how they are going about it. Instead of groups of the past like DX or NWO you don't get picked in. Randy is saying either get tough and earn my respect or I am gonna slap it into you till the you do get it. Kinda like how that might shape up.
ECW wrestlers now on RAW. It's like Dan-e-o has said in the past the whole concept of different brands does not exist half the time. I enjoyed the Rey Rey and Evan Bourne match against Miz and Morrison but still it did not belong on Raw.
Beth and Mickie was half good. A whole lot better than Sundays PPV match. Then again they are not getting the Taker Rub-A-Dub at home. Was not hard to notice that no body cared about Candace being ringside. I see Candace injured again at the PPV from sloppy work on her part. Hate to see anyone get hurt but she lacks alot.
CHL oh my god was that not funny as hell. JBL berating him in the ring and he just stands there with that shit eating grin.
Noble loses to Regal and Layla just gets up and walks away with Regal. She was looking all concerned walking up the ramp. Uh ok if you were that worried why not just shove Regal aside and go back to the ring?
JBL/Jericho vs Batista. Well it was what we expected and really no need to talk about it much.
All in all this week was not a bad Raw and was pretty decent coming off the PPV. The makings of new story lines and the continuation of others. Least it might be a start of turning the C show around. Hope everyone is having a great week and that's my cup of O.
p.s. Rico good luck this weekend bro.
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