Yo. Welcome to another edition of News and Analysis. There’s plenty to get to today, as I’ll be going over RAW, as we’re closer and closer to the biggest show in sports entertainment — WWE WrestleMania.
WWE presented their Monday Night RAW program this past Monday. The show had one goal — hype the heck out of WrestleMania and for what it was worth, I thought the show was fairly good. We saw some great action on the show, as RVD and Kane took on Lance Storm and Chief Morley in a match with an interesting twist, Triple H took on Goldust, and Test teamed up with the Big Bad Booty Daddy to take on Chris Jericho and Christian. There was also the main event which featured Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff in what was first dubbed as a Lumberjack match but ended up being a No-Disqualification bout, which then allowed for Hollywood’s own Rock to interfere and deliver the Stunner to Austin. The ratings for RAW are in and things are NOT looking good. The show scored a 3.8 rating, off of hours 3.5 and 4.0. That is down from last week’s 4.0 mark and way down from the 4.5 from two weeks ago. That’s not good news for WWE as they’re headed into their biggest PPV of the year, and although the coverage on Iraq has taken some viewers away from the show, the impact shouldn’t be felt so strongly.
I want to start this report with Triple H. It’s sort of a follow-up from my now infamous Wrestling Personified commentary. I mentioned in there that when Triple H deserves credit, I’m the first one to admit it. I honestly liked Hunter’s work last night on the show. He had a very good bout with Goldust (Goldust has been errorless in the ring which helps as well) and he did sell a lot of Goldy’s moves. I also feel that inserting Goldust into the Triple H vs. Booker T storyline was a great touch by the writing team. Although his current gimmick is a bit dumb, it allows them to move forward from the cheap racial crap they’ve been doing. While it’s still somewhat associated (thanks to Jerry Lawler’s stupid remarks), it’s just different when the feud is more focused around things like Goldust helping out his friend, or Randy Orton showing that he’s still aligned with Triple H, and not on the injury list. It’s my feel that if WWE had started this feud the way they carried it last night, it would have been much more successful. Yesterday, Trips and Booker proved that they work great in the ring, and have the skills to carry a great feud, something which I mentioned in the commentary and in last week’s N and A.
With Triple H putting over Goldust, it now gives them the opportunity to book a tag match involving Flair on Triple H’s side of things for next week’s show and hopefully concentrate more on the wrestling side of things. The setup is there, they just need to follow it up. Again, kudos to Triple H for allowing Goldust to get some offense in their match, and for putting over (although not clear, whereas Rock put Hurricane over in their SEGMENTS clear) Goldust in their segment before the match. Again, I’m not ashamed in giving credit where credit’s due, and it’s my personal opinion that Triple H was good last night. His in-ring work was also much improved since the Maven squash.
The Rock and Steve Austin continue to carry their feud pretty much the way you would expect them too. Week 1 — The Rock makes his return to RAW. Week 2 — Steve Austin makes his return to RAW. Week 3 — The Rock and Steve Austin have their first “official” verbal confrontation. Week 4 — The Rock and Steve Austin have their first physical confrontation – Rock gives Austin the stunner. It’s funny how WWE can go from 2003 in their other feuds to 2001 when they do Rock vs. Austin. It’s pretty much the exact same way they did the previous WrestleMania feud between the two, of course, besides the fact one is now heel, and there’s no Debra around. The approach is pretty old school though, and to be honest, that’s not a bad idea. Rock and Austin aren’t up-to-date with things and since their feud is just kind of out there and they’re doing most of the work (Bischoff is the only other person involved so far), it’s not that bad. I would expect for the Rattlesnake to strike back next week, or possibly for Rock to do more damage to Austin, but that kind of pushes it towards a predictable Austin win.
Just on a fast note, again from last week’s commentary… If you expected The Rock to put over someone again last night, then you were dead wrong, and I should have touched on that in the commentary, but am doing it in this space here. It would have been four weeks in which Rock would get the short end of the stick, and as good as things he’s done for Hurricane or Booker, it was about time Rock got his. You really can’t have someone main-event WrestleMania with Steve Austin and keep having them lose to Hurricane or Booker T. I really appreciate Rock’s work, and I feel that him getting revenge on Monday was totally fair!
I’ll be damned, but Scott Steiner proved last night there’s still gas left in his tank. Did you hear that pop he got?! I was surprised by it, but then Steiner lived up to the pop itself. He was all over in his tag match w/ Test against Jericho and Christian, and he looked much better in the ring! It’s really important who you’re wrestling in order for a match to get over, and from where I stand Chris Jericho gets the MVP spot on RAW for what he does. He makes any match, no matter who his opponent is, seem important and good. That’s an ability you don’t stumble upon often these days. As far as Steiner goes, I can definitely see a storyline with Test happening, probably over Stacy Keibler. I like the idea of having Stacy become Scott’s manager, because she’ll be more valuable there. As talented as Test is, the man has less charisma than A-Train. (Ouch, that was harsh.) No offense, but it’s pretty obvious too! He’s just wasted talent.
And here I give you my two-to-three-sentence thoughts on all things RAW… The Divas are simply great and continue to try their hardest week in and week out. I don’t remember the last time WWE had such a great women’s division. Kudos to Trish, Jazz, and Victoria… Speaking of Trish, Jeff Hardy is a lucky man. I won’t be surprised if their on-and-off romance continues… Rico has a lot of potential and it’s really sorry WWE has stuck him in a bad role. I wonder if that will be changing in the near future… Goldust’s gimmick isn’t all that good, but I really think it’s something to go with, as he pretty much doesn’t have anything else to do right now… I expected a lot more from the Shawn Michaels/Steve Austin segment. They had quite an opportunity to create a good stir there, but it ended up a bit lame. I won’t be surprised to see Shawn take on Austin in the near future. Such a feud makes sense on all levels, though it’ll be hard to come up with a winner… I don’t know if you Back the Mack or what, but Theodore Long’s new client isn’t cutting it with me so far. Looks like he’s talented too, but he’s yet to prove that to me.
There have been no changes made to the WrestleMania card since the last report, besides the confirmation of a match or two. Here’s the card again:
– The Rock vs. Steve Austin [confirmed]
– Kurt Angle (c) vs. Brock Lesnar — WWE Championship [confirmed]
– Triple H (c) vs. Booker T — World Heavyweight Championship [confirmed]
– Vince McMahon vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan [confirmed]
– Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels [confirmed]
– Matt Hardy (c) vs. Rey Mysterio — WWE Cruiserweight Championship [confirmed]
– The Undertaker and Nathan Jones vs. A-Train and Big Show [confirmed]
– Team Angle (c) vs. Benoit/Rhyno vs. Los Guerreros — WWE Tag Teams Championship [confirmed]
– Victoria (c) vs. Jazz vs. Trish Stratus — Women’s Championship [confirmed]
– Limp Bizkit performance [confirmed]
– World Tag Teams Championship Match (?)
– Test vs. Scott Steiner (?)
For the last two matches… I’m 100% sure Kane and RVD won’t be breaking up soon, so it would make sense to see them challenge the tag team champions, especially after Kane pinned Storm on RAW. However, due to Regal’s injury and his inability to perform in the ring as of lately, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Dudleyz vs. Kane and RVD #1 contenders match or something like that. Maybe WWE can put the belts on the line in a triple threat or four way dance and add 3 Minute Warning to it as well. Stay tuned. If that happens, they could definitely add Test vs. Scott Steiner to the card as well, maybe taking place on Sunday Night Heat, who knows?
In what seems to be the “biggest” news on-line lately, Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff got in an alternation backstage at RAW … twice. The word has it that while Bischoff was in his “TV office” speaking on the phone, Flair busted in yelling and unhappy over his past with Eric in WCW. It’s no secret that Bischoff didn’t exactly treat Flair as the legend he is in the old WCW and the two didn’t like each other. Apparently, the yelling broke out into a situation where fists and punches were thrown, but it was separated by backstage staff. Later, still before RAW, Bischoff approached Natch in the cafeteria area and asked him to talk things out, but instead the two got into an alteration again, where even Arn Anderson intervened and yelled at Bischoff as well, instead of breaking the thing up. Reportedly, it ended up as Vince McMahon talked to both guys, and the McMahons and Triple H backstage helped break it up. To update you on the situation, Eric Bischoff said at the WrestleMania XIX Press Conference today that not everything we read on-line is true and that “most of it is bullsh*t.” So I guess take all of this for what it’s worth, but nonetheless, there has been tension between Flair and Bischoff in the past. That’s why I don’t like discussing sh*tty backstage news like that. This section is about analysis of the actual TV product, it’s what I feel we need more of out there! I’m gonna call it a day for now. I’ll be back over the weekend with SmackDown! thoughts and the usual. Later. 🙂
My Two Cents
I couldn’t help but laugh at the sign “Scalded Dog *arrow pointing down*” on RAW. It was very funny how it got on TV right when they had a shot of J.R. and The King and the sign was “positioned” above J.R.’s shoulder.
If Eric Bischoff said next week’s main event is a Hell In A Cell Math would you trust him? Heck no! Two weeks in a row the main event was changed throughout the show.
What about that paint on Trish’s forehead after the kiss?
Did Booker look EXACTLY like Busta Rhymes or what?! Not just the hair too, but their facial features are freakishly similar!
Will Eric ever learn not to trust Rock?
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
