Professional wrestling is also called sports entertainment — the art of building up a story, consisting of strong characters with believable, or at times unrealistic, characters, following through that story by the use of physicality, such as a match, and ending the story “with a bang.” While Monday Night RAW wasn’t the best edition of the show WWE has ever aired, the program was highlighted with the best story WWE has told in a long time — can Ric Flair raise the bar and climb the top of the mountain one last time? Therefore, the show was great.
For weeks now I have been saying the same thing over and over — WWE needs to work on storylines! This is the key to their success today. They don’t need to worry about wrestling that much. In an era where they’re the ONLY wrestling company out there, and in an era of so many dangerous injuries caused to performers, the crowd can go without the big moves, or the high spots. Save those for the PPVs, and present RAW and SmackDown! in a calm manner, but have the story behind it to back it up. I will not even discuss Judgment Day in this edition of News and Analysis. It’s not worth the time. They didn’t give the “extra” the PPV fan deserves and what he/she paid for. However, on RAW, they did the right thing — they actually had a storyline going that made sense, was credible, and very very very enjoyable!
Before I go on, a couple of weeks ago, the Internet pro wrestling community was in awe of Steve Austin’s fight night as Co-G.M. with Eric Bischoff. Why? Because the storyline WWE came up with for that night was great! The two had a chemistry and worked perfect together as a match. The show was enjoyable. This past Monday’s RAW had the exact same setup behind it, only this time it circulated more around wrestling and involved two of the main players on the show — Triple H and Ric Flair.
Ric Flair proved for the millionth time on Monday Night RAW why he’s one of the best performers this industry has ever seen, and will ever see. Obviously, in a great shape and fair condition, Flair hung in the ring with Triple H for what I thought was a great main event on RAW. Wrestling-wise, the Nature Boy proved that he may not be as consistent in his performance as he once was, but at certain nights, he still is Natch! He still is the man! I also want to stop and give credit where credit is due. Triple H put up a hell of a match, he sold as much as he could, and gave the bout a whole different dimension. I just think it really sucks that when H gets in the ring with someone like Nash or Flair, not only is he willing to sell, but he does a great job in it, he’s that “damn good.” But when he gets in the ring with Kane, or RVD, things don’t seem to flow too well. Yet like I said, I’m not afraid to give credit where credit is due, and while Triple H deserves to get dissed in other areas of the current WWE situation, for his efforts on RAW he deserves nothing but praise.
So besides the match, what was so good about RAW and what does it say about the company? A lot. I think WWE should take a closer look at this past Monday’s edition and realize something. Yes, the fans are sick of Triple H holding on to that championship, and yes, it’s about time he loses it, but it’s very important how he loses it! The perfect night for H to drop the belt was on RAW! Yes, you read it right. Ric Flair should have won and had a short run because it would have been well worth it. The WWE just had a great story behind it, and that’s what was so good about RAW — they simply told the story from beginning to end, and built a legend who has been a manager for six months into a credible superstar again. From Flair crying in the back, to the HBK chat, to the segment with Flair in his locker room, to Jim Ross standing up as Flair came out, all to the fact that they were in Greenville, SC, Flair proved he’s the man in wrestling, and that when things are done right, WWE will always get good results.
You see, people would have cheered for Flair anyway, no doubt, but the show was so good because the two guys who fought it out just had the perfect set up for it! That is exactly what WWE needs to do. That is why nothing they’ve done in the world title picture has worked so far. They had a great thing going on with RVD, but H sold him short, and the story wasn’t set up good. They had a good thing going with Kane, but then the Katie Vick deal killed the storyline again. The Shawn Michaels story was well done, but you kind of knew H was going to do the job and then get what’s his. Steiner was brought in, and WWE did a good job with storylines, but he fell short from the wrestling standard they needed. Booker T’s feud with the champion turned into cheap racial teases. Kevin Nash’s feud is not working because they got the crowd to boo him. None of these things worked and if they’re planning to have Goldberg fight Triple H, it won’t work either! They need to build a credible adversary for The Game. You see, Triple H has won so many times now, that whoever gets to defeat him will not only become big, but he’ll become VERY big. The next huge star, possibly, and WWE shouldn’t lose that!
Flair was a credible opponent, and that is the pure reason why what they did worked. And yes, I did say earlier he should be the champion now. As a matter of fact, with such a great storyline going, WWE could have done so many great things on RAW and should have had the two fight at Bad Blood. The story behind a potential feud is just so great and can’t be missed on. It’ll be really interesting to see what they’re going to do with Flair’s character now, and where this is going to go from here.
Oh yeah, there also was the other stuff on the show, but let’s face it, none of it mattered as much… So, Jericho had Storm run over Goldberg, but what’s in it for Storm? At least they’re starting a Y2J vs. Goldberg feud… Wasn’t it about time Stacy walked away from both Test and Steiner?… Will we be seeing the APA on RAW next week starting a feud with La Resistance?… How sad does Christian look? When he took his shirt off, with this goofy hair and those clothes, did you also think you were seeing a teenage version of Test?… I did like Rodney Mack vs. Spike, but they should have had Mack beat Spike and then last almost five minutes in the ring with somebody more established than the Dudley… It’s about time Rico broke away from 3 Minute Warning. Will that be the perfect time for Billy Gunn to make a return?… I’m glad to see Booker back. I wish him the best of health… Austin was over the top, he went a bit nuts, and his segments were a bit weird, but you and everyone else knows that some of the stuff he does is hilarious. The man is struggling because he can’t wrestle, but still trying to make the best out of it in his current job… Can you believe there was no women’s match on RAW?… RAW scored a 3.6 rating, down from last week’s 4.4. I guess we’re back to normal now, and the company needs to do something in the near future so their ratings can go up again. You know, I haven’t paid attention to ratings as close as others do, but in a year if they keep going at it with these scores, wrestling will be endangered.
Things go back to normal this weekend with a regular N and A. Until then…
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
