This will be different from your usual N and A…
WWE presented Monday Night RAW this past Monday and it was one of the weirdest shows I’ve seen in a while. I thought it was a much better show than last week’s efforts, but the booking on the program was really bad, to the point where some forgot there’s only six days left until Backlash. Anyway, we’ll get into this in a bit. RAW highlights saw Triple H successfully defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T in a match that had no winner. Elsewhere, the Rock Concert II hit the air, and though a bit lame, way too long, and seemingly old in the minds of fans, it was one of the entertaining spots on RAW. We also heard from Lita, who was fired from RAW by Eric Bischoff. Oh yeah, Gillberg also made an appearance! Yay! RAW’s rating is in and for once the news is good for WWE. The show scored a composite rating of 3.8, off of hours 3.3 and 4.1. This is up by 12% from last week’s 3.4 score and definitely a good sign for WWE heading into Backlash. Yet you have to wonder if the booking on the show will help in anyway…
Wow… I’ve never been more confused before when it comes to analyzing a RAW. I definitely feel that this week’s effort was better than last week’s and the show ended up being better as well, but at the same time there were many things, mostly booking, that just seemed bad from any way you look at it. I’ll probably come off negative in most of the thoughts given below, but don’t be surprised if you get a mix of reactions for a certain segment/storyline. Anyway, let’s see how this will work out…
Rock Concert II… Let’s face it, it’s not a new, fresh idea, just something WWE tried to recycle and kinda mock themselves with, which was evident. I think this segment was way too long to begin with. Due to the poor way they booked the Rock/Goldberg match last week, and the way Rock has been getting the better lately, and most importantly the stop of momentum Goldberg had last week with the Goldust and Christian segments, it’s all but official that they have slowed down big time (not yet killed) the momentum the feud had. Goldberg was made to look incredibly stupid last night. Just like several other people have noted on the Internet, he was made to look like just another flavor of the week, and not as something special or unique WWE fans can start liking, or relating to. It just seems that the politics are too much to overcome. Yes, Rock crushed Goldberg since Bill is going to be doing the beating at Backlash, but the way it was done just didn’t do much for anyone.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help but laugh at the backstage segments Rock did, or to some of his reactions during the concert. Rock’s character is now getting edgy because of how this storyline has went. A lot of people have started cheering for him again, and that’s understandable, having in mind of how things have been working out. I don’t know if Rock will stick around for another month or if this is his last WWE PPV for a while, but nonetheless in his run Rock did more for the company than anyone else could have, and he definitely brought the “spirit” back. At least that’s how I feel. As far as Goldberg goes, if they keep doing what they’re doing, he’ll be gone in less than two months. The current plan is for Goldberg to challenge Triple H for the title around SummerSlam (H will probably feud Nash until then), but having in mind what has happened and how his character has been handled, I won’t be surprised if Goldberg gets fed up and leaves. He certainly doesn’t need WWE, he has the money at the moment. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself there.
The main event was solid. I felt the wrestling was good and Booker and Trips gave the match a good feeling. Shawn Michaels also did a very solid job. Y2J, Flair, and Nash were good at their roles as well. They all did well, but the booking and how the match ended… That was a whole other story. Terrible ending! The Clique got theirs and what happened to Booker? He was what he said in the backstage segment beforehand — he was simply the odd man there! I would have rather had Triple H pin Booker T than do the ending they did on Monday. This way Trips, Nash, and HBK ended up being the “big” guys but what happened to Booker? Nothing. We forget about him. That was a very bad spot, and I know this came really negative, but I hope you understand that it’s things like RAW’s ending that spark negativity on-line by most. Let’s get positive here…
I’ll be damned, but RAW had some good matches. And again I’ll be damned, but I totally loved every second of Scott Steiner and Test vs. 3 Minute Warning. I can’t believe that nobody on-line even said one positive thing about these guys. They gave it all they had on RAW and I deeply appreciated it. They displayed some great solid wrestling, too. It’s just amazing how in four weeks Scott Steiner was able to come back to his old self. I don’t know about you, but I personally feel that Steiner has picked it up majorly lately and is obviously getting back into ring shape! It’s just unfortunate WWE had to use him in the big main event spot when he was still rusty. The fans agree as well, as they STILL continue to cheer for Steiner, as they should. Test is also one to praise. Slamming those huge Rosie and Jamal isn’t an easy task. Test hung in there and did well in my opinion. Then we go to Three Minute Warning. These guys have went downhill in the past few months, but I felt that on RAW they gave it all they had as well. They were pretty solid and totally matched up to Steiner and Test. The match was also booked very well, using the size of all four guys, the spots with Rico, Stacy, and Steiner. Everything. I truly enjoyed it.
It’s really amazing to me that I can hate something so much such as the main event’s ending and on the same show to love something as simple as a match with four guys most would consider as low-card talent who has no place on the show. I’m sorry if you disagree, but I was impressed with what I saw, and it just made me sick that the will these four guys had to compete and them giving it all was everything compared to the ego backstage game and the shenanigans in the main event. To quote Dave Scherer, Shawn Michaels’ pants falling down during RAW and the way it happened is a pretty good symbol of where WWE is right now, where the RAW brand goes. It’s a sad story, filled with emotions, feelings, the will to compete, and the glass ceiling that shatters it all. Welcome to professional wrestling, ladies and gentlemen.
I’m now typing the rest of this report on Wednesday. The Tuesday part above was a bit emotional. Hopefully you didn’t find it weird. Here is the latest news in wrestling…
Random RAW thoughts… It was great to see Lita back! She looked great! It was a good idea to remind the fans about her, but why did they do it on the last show before a PPV and not on the night following the PPV beats me… The Five Minute White Boy Challenge. Enough said… I love the tag teams title storyline, but why wouldn’t Morley pick himself and Storm to go after the belts instead of the Dudleyz? I’m still looking forward to the match though!… Nice to see Christian doing something big. WIth a bit more of a persona and a better storyline, he’ll definitely be an important asset to RAW, especially after the PPV split.
WWE did what’s been nagging for months now and just got rid of Jeff Hardy. Besides about 45 girls IMing me on Tuesday, there hasn’t been a lot of questions over why Jeff was released. I’ll sum it up for you. About a year and a half ago, the Hardy Boyz were burnt out. They received some time to rest up and returned to WWE. However, by that time, Jeff Hardy had found another passion — rock music. As it turned out, Jeff slowly started growing out of wrestling and didn’t seem to care that much about the business. He was constantly late to house shows and even RAW’s some times. Due to his popularity, WWE kept him around for good. Recently, about two weeks ago, Jim Ross gave Jeff time off so he can relax for a while and rethink everything in his life. He was taken out of House Shows. Last week, however, he was also taken off TV, while he was in the midst of a storyline pinning Trish Stratus. After this week, he’s been fired. It just seems that WWE are upset with him (their message on WWE.com was pretty harsh), but nevertheless, both parties are probably happy with what happened. Jeff has always been the extreme one (while Matt has been the passionate one but for the business ONLY) and lately he’s had some personal issues to take care of as well. He can now cool off, use his saved up money, and do whatever he pleases with his life. WWE, on the other hand, doesn’t have to worry about him and move on. There have been rumors NWA-TNA already is trying to get Jeff, but I highly doubt he’d want to wrestle at that time. We’ll keep you updated. I want to say Thank You to Jeff Hardy for all the great memories and matches. From TLC to beating Triple H for the IC Championship, to battling Undertaker in a Ladder Match for the World Title, to his last match with The Rock on RAW last week, Jeff, you’ve been great and amazing. Thanks for the memories and always looking forward to more in the future!
Backlash predictions this weekend. I hope you enjoyed this read.
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
