So, what everybody loved about the Attitude Era was that the show was unpredictable, right? The constant cliffhangers and frequent drama were what made everybody tune in, right? So why has "Raw" started off for the past three weeks with the family McMahon citing these things as bad?I've enjoyed "Raw" these past few weeks, and I believe the vast majority of fans have, as well. TV that is free of the McMahons is not a bad thing. Sure, Vince and his family have been involved in some of the more memorable moments in "Raw" history, but in the same vein as their current motif of shaking things up, "Raw" doesn't need the McMahons these days.
Last night, "Raw" kicked off with the following segments: Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho brawling, Kane coming out and apologizing for his actions last week, Shawn Michaels and Lance Cade brawling, and Mickie James coming out for a match. Not to mention, all of that happened in approximately the same amount of time it took you to read this paragraph. Maybe they're driving the show a little forcefully that way, but I suppose it's a superior alternative to beating a dead horse for the first twenty minutes.
Katie Lea Burchill impresses me. I'd like to see her and Mickie James have a nice, long feud (primarily because very few divas on "Raw" can actually work), and I'd like to see Katie get the belt at some point in time. Women's wrestling in WWE will probably never be given a chance to be the main event, but they're at least taking a step in the right direction by having actual wrestlers on the show.
Immediately after Mickie won, she was jumped by the Burchill siblings. Out comes Kofi to make the save, and after a commercial break, we get a defense of the Intercontinental Championship. Kofi and Paul put on a very entertaining match in another feud that I would like to see stick around for a while. In the end, Kofi hit his spinning kick to pin Burchill and retain his championship.
I'll say the same thing for the Intercontinental Championship that I said about the United States Championship. I hope Kofi is given a lengthy run with the belt and is featured regularly on television defending it. "Raw" has largely let that belt fall to the wayside for a very long time. In fact, not since Johnny Nitro was the champion in 2006 have I felt the belt was doing any good for either the wrestler holding it, or the product overall. Because this midcard title has been so ignored, "Raw"s midcard is not exactly rock solid, so having someone get a long run with the belt will help to establish new challengers and to re-establish the value of the belt.
Santino Marella lost to Beth Phoenix. This I don't really care about, because it's not the first time he's been beaten up by women. Not to mention, he's a comic heel, that's what comic heels are supposed to do. Here's my problem. Two weeks ago, he cut a promo on Rey Mysterio. Last week, he had a match against Mysterio. Sounds like the beginning of a feud, right? Well, this week, no interaction with Rey Mysterio, no appearance by Rey, nothing. I get this nagging feeling that someone backstage is saying "Well, he's really funny, but we've really got nothing for him."
Think of all the feuds Santino has had since debuting. Umaga, Ron Simmons, Jerry Lawler, Stone Cold, Roddy Piper, and there may be others, I don't recall offhand. Where was the payoff for any of those? They all just sort of fizzled out. Yes, Santino is remarkably talented, and he may be the funniest guy in WWE, but it's clear that the people backstage don't know what to do with him. He'll never be a star in WWE, and five years from now, he'll either be pursuing future endeavours, or he'll be in the same spot Val Venis is in right now.
Normally this is where I go from hailing Santino to hating on John Cena, but I have to say that his promo last night was one of the best Cena promos I've seen in a long time. No toilet humor, no cornball references, no pandering. Just Cena being aggressive. When John Cena was on "SmackDown!" in 2002-2005, he was always put over as the guy who was aggressive, ruthless, and in your face. That got him over. He's not a funny guy (not as a face, at least) and last night he didn't try to be. Great promo. I'm still not looking forward to him beating JBL again this Sunday, though.
After seeing Shawn Michaels brawl twice in the show already, we were treated to Chris Jericho square off against another one of HBK's former pupils, Paul London. Not a very long match, nor was it a good indicator of London's future in WWE. After the match, Jericho berated London, prompting Michaels to come out. The only thing I'm disappointed about here (and the reason that I say this segment was a bad sign for London fans) was because while Michaels was talking to Jericho, it would have been the perfect time for London to jump Jericho from behind. It evens things up, as both HBK and Y2J now have a protege in their corner, and it gives London something to do.
I don't get what WWE is trying to do with the way they are handling Punk. I get it if there is a heel or two back there who thinks that Punk is young and has a lot to learn before he could be a long-reigning, successful champion. But the constant mention of the word "fluke" is really a stupid move. This is your product, and it's your champion. If you want people to buy into your product, there should be some belief that he's legitimate. WWE did this with Randy Orton's last run to an extent. Apparently any champion not named John Cena or Triple H isn't allowed an opportunity to get over.Punk faced Kane last night in a match that Kane demanded. Punk won by countout, which caused Kane to snap again afterwards. I'd probably be more intrigued by Kane's current storyline if the jaded fed mark in me didn't think it was another pathetic way to put over the Vince McMahon injury angle. I'm also a little curious as to why they're doing this now, since May 19 was two months ago. Oh, whoops, did I just point out that they've done this several times with Kane's character in the past?
I noticed early on in the program that WWE was showing Bowflex commercials during their breaks. I sort of blew it off at first, but then later in the show, I saw the Bowflex commercial followed by an advertisement for a local Bible shop. You can't script something more ironic than that, O-sters.
Hacksaw Jim Duggan is still around? Really? Dude looks mad out of shape. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets cut soon and his berating at the hands of Simply Priceless last night was planned as his final appearance. I thought that Rhodes and DiBiase did a great job on the stick last night, though. I guess Cody wasn't as vanilla as I thought.
After their segment with Duggan, Rhodes and DiBiase were picked by JBL to team up with him against John Cena and Cryme Tyme. John Cena is not the champion, but he's main eventing the show while the actual champion, CM Punk, is smack in the midcard. It never ceases to amaze me how hard creative is up Cena's ass. "Well, he's a hard worker"-yeah, that's what you say about guys who absolutely suck! You don't put them in the main event because "they're a hard worker".
Following the match, JBL led Cena out to the parking lot where he ran him over. Which only cements that John Cena is going over again this Sunday. So I suppose, for the sake of O-sters interests, the card for this Sunday's The Great American Bash should be updated. Replacing John Cena vs. JBL will be-Dante Ross vs. Piss Break! Will Bathroom Break keep it's undefeated streak alive this Sunday? Only one way to find out, O-sters!
Tha Results:
Mickie James def. Katie Lea Burchill
Kofi Kingston def. Paul Burchill to retain Intercontinental Championship
Beth Phoenix def. Santino Marella
Chris Jericho def. Paul London
CM Punk def. Kane by Count-Out
John Cena & Cryme Tyme def. JBL & Simply Priceless by DQ
16 comments: on "Tha Raw Report"
Santino's commentary during his own match was hilarious, and earlier in the night when Kane asked where Punk was, and he said "idk, did you try the pepsi machine", I laughed my ass off.
Cody Rhodes is so money on the mic, I never expected that when he was tagging with Holly all those months (though I loved his bulldog). I really like this team, and hope they stick together awhile and get consistent tv time every week.
While I think Kofi vs Burchill was a good idea for a grudge match, I feel like this match was a good example of WWE's wrestling style being about 10 years old, if that. I don't know if everything is so slow and unoriginal because of how many dates they work, or are they fearful of injuries if guy's actually have a unique moveset from others on the roster.
When Punk first won the title, I thought he was about to become the man, and a lot of smarks were gonna be forced to give WWE some credit. Then he faced Snitsky the next week, which wasn't too bad, sounded like an ok idea, Snitsky used to squash guys. This week he faced Kane, good idea again, I guess, until I saw that the match wasn't the main event, and Punk basically got punk'd when it was all said and done. I thought he was an underdog champ at first, but now I'm just confused.
One reason I guess Punk's match wasn't the main event was so that Cena/JBL could end the show with that segment, which was going well for a while, Cena acted cautious really well, and had me thinking some really bad was gonna sneak up on him, like when Stone Cold got hit by the car. But nothing that wild happen, I wanted something that showed Cena actually getting taken out of action(i.e.Austin getting hit Rock having the forklift stuck on top of him), not so much special effects.
Cena's dead!!
Simply Priceless is just that. Both are awesome on the mic and are solid in ring (From what we can tell). Put that with a feud with Crime Time for the straps and I'm pumped. Both are young teams and both are being put over well by established main eventers. The E's subtle way of positioning them as stars of the future.
Once again, the theme on Raw seems to be new talent and it's working well. Kofi was pretty good against Burchill and the womens match wasn't half bad.
My only no was Cena's promo. I liked the matured style, but he was just rambling on and repeating himself. I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about till the end. Plus, since when did he do a black preacher impression? Tone it down a little. Oh yeah, and the ending was wack. YOU COULD SEE THE CAMERA SET UP IN THE PASSENGER SEAT OF THE CAR. Kudos for the cliff hangers, but no for the obviousness.
CM Punk as champ = epic fail
this review sucks. the show was good except the end. but all i hear is negative ngative and hten i hear katie lee is really good and santino is remarkably talented?
sorry i never liked your reviews always gets me tight.
and if i dont like doesnt mean " i hat the o show" dont use that excuse for every defense.
1. I too enjoyed the sons' berating of Hacksaw, but did he have to just stand there and take it like that? He looked like he was about to cry, for Christ's sake. At least let him get one last word in.
2. Is it just me, or has Santino's accent sounded a little off lately? Also, I'm not sure what the deal is with his mohawk and trucker moustache. A Mysterio program where Santino for once isn't made to look like a chump sounds real good for him.
3. And is Jericho finally bringing back the old-school Liontamer? I hope so, it's far better than a plain old Boston Crab; in fact, I'd say it's one of the most painful(-looking) holds in wrestling.
I kinda agree with Jared. This was an especially negative outlook on what was a pretty good show.
For a start I thought it was pretty obvious that the Mcmahons are setting up the need to introduce some kind of authority figure on RAW. I agree that the fast pace and cliffhangers are making the show much better but, as you said in the report Mr Casur, it's a bit too fast paced and I think thats the idea.
A GM or Commish would allow some control but that doesn't mean the unpredictability has to go or the pace has to slow to a crawl. Then we have Kane.
I noticed you failed to mention the bag kane was carrying? That bag to me is an indicator that Mr Gray had a point with his last 'Shades of Gray' Article and maybe we will see the return of Paul Bearer or Maybe the debut of James Mitchell. I think the bag holds Kane's mask and we may be in the process of seeing the return of a masked heel Kane.
Now I agree with what you said about the Micheal and Jericho spot after Jerich and London's match but both Micheals and Jerich cut solid promos and Micheals doesn't need the backup, he's the face.
Now we move on to C.M Punk. Punk is being positioned as an underdog champ, each match he has is solid and showcases his talent but always matches him agains bigger stronger opponents, where he either outsmarts them ie beating Kane back to the ring for the 10 count or by pulling his finisher out of nowhere, Snitsky last week. This allows us to be shocked when he beats Batista in a clean victory(I hope).
I totally agree about Cena's promo, it was one of the best he's cut in a long time and I hope they can keep it up, I don't thinkl it was as heavily scripted as he has been over the last... well since he moved to RAW and that seemes to be a good move!
I don't think that there is any kind of co-winky-dink that William Regal's suspension will be up around the 18th of this month and the fact that Shane and Steph are getting ready to bring in an Authority Figure.
Good show.
The Punk thing confuses me, but I'm ok with it because he still has the belt and it sets up Batista for a massive heel turn and he and Orton to reunite as the NuEvolution.
i'm pretty sure that regal was suspended on the 20th of may. this coming monday is the 21st.
This review wasn't shitting on the show at all. It doesn't make CM Punk to be a mid-card world champion. He can be an underdog champion and still be at the top of the card. All this shows is that someone backstage may not have faith that people are gonna stay to watch him.
To say the reviews sucks...you suck, because nothing was said that made the show look any greater than it was. You want him to praise something he didn't believe was worth praising? I thought the review itself was pretty positive, more positive than I thought the show was. Read my first reply, it's basically a contrast to the review, because I thought the show was simply ok.
I should clarify that I only 'kinda' agreed with Jared, in as far as I thought the review was kinda negative.
I didn't think it sucks and I think Christopher is allowed to have an opinion as long as I'm allowed to disagree with it!! lol
I like reading your stuff man, you always put across your points solidly and back them up!
I also would like to say that I didn't want to mention Regal's name incase I jinxed it, so if he's not comin back as GM then it's all YOUR fault D.J.B
jared-
Can't please everybody, I suppose, but the bright side is, even if you think my articles suck, there's plenty of other stuff on the site for you to enjoy. The radio show, interviews, other people's articles, etc.
Shammy_D-
You and every O-ster are always welcome to debate anything written by any member of Tha O Show. That's the whole point of the comments section. As far as the Kane angle, as I said in the review, the E deserves credit, because are making it intriguing; I'm unfortunately very jaded when it comes to McMahon's self-promoting antics and believe this to be a way of putting over his current injury storyline.
where did you say they deserved credit? As far as i can see all you said was how they could make it more intriguing and hadn't it all been done before.
Why is it that the E always falls back on the car gimmick? Hogan, Rock, HHH, HBK, Stone Cold, now Cena. To steal a phrase they have gone to the well one to many times with the car angles. I enjoyed Raw right up until that. They should have just left it with Cena standing in the parking lot.
I hope I did jinx the GM return on one condition. He returns with the push he was in for when he left. Everyone else that gets suspended gets some sort of push so dammit put him in a feud with Punk so both of them get the belt.
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