I have to admit this wasn’t the best Raw I’ve seen but it wasn’t that bad. Sure there were some bad moments, plus the crowd was rather lifeless and that certainly didn’t help things. The main event was damn good, as was the IC Title match. I also got a good laugh out of Rico, so even though the feedback I’ve been getting is somewhat anti Raw I felt the show was good.
Let’s get rid of the negatives first. I think part of the reason why the crowd was so dead was due to the announcement that Steve Austin would not be there. I think that basically sucked the life out of the majority that were there. He was supposed to be out due to food poisoning, but from all I’ve read that’s not the case, he supposedly just wanted a night off. Also with Austin out, there was way too much of Eric Bischoff last night. At least with Austin, Eric has less time to bore us, last night his 90 appearances okay, more like 5 or 6 were just too much and unnecessary.
And as much I as really liked the Battle Royal with the women, giving newcomer Gail Kim the belt kind of upset me. I didn’t see anything outstanding about her, not that she didn’t look great and I’m sure she’s going to be something to see, but giving her the title win just seemed so out of place.
I thought Goldberg again was used well but the thing that bothers me with him coming out for a 10 second appearance with his Spear and Jackhammer on Rodney Mack is, what does he do for a pay per view match? Wrestle for a few seconds and that’s it? Also his match was with the ever loving but boring Lance Storm, and he’s the one that I wanted to see wrestle Goldberg, but they made Lance a coward by having him leave as soon as Bill took care of Rodney Mack. That I didn’t care for. As far as Kane goes, I’m still not sure how I feel about his storyline. It’s a little to new yet I guess. I’m not saying Kane won’t survive this character change but as of last night, I’m not exactly into it, but I will admit I want to see what happens with him next week.
How about some highlights. Like Jericho’s Highlight Reel. Mr. Highlight’s guest was Stacey Kiebler who came out with Scott Steiner. I loved watching Jericho’s expression when he saw Steiner come into the ring. Hell he wanted to see if he could have Stacey all to himself. I liked this opening and you just knew this was a set up for Test to go after both. Naturally in one of his MANY appearances Eric made a match with Test/Jericho vs. Steiner and Stacey. I liked the match; again Jericho worked his ass off. Sure it was predictable because you knew Steiner would keep Stacey out of the ring, but Test was able to get her in there after Steiner was hit with a chair, and then Stacey fell victim to Test’s Pumphandle Slam. But I still enjoyed this. I also thought the IC title match was terrific. However after Booker beat Christian I was not happy when Bischoff came out and said both men’s shoulders were on the mat making it a draw and giving Christian the win. Again Booker is left out in the cold. That kind of killed the night for a lot of us too.
Randy Orton vs. Tommy Dreamer was done very well. I loved the new Evolution video. It definitely worked for me, and Orton I’m telling you is the future of WWE. I don’t know about you but last night Rico had me laughing so hard the thought about the match today just started me laughing even more. Watching Rico drive Maven crazy last night was too much. His skipping, the ballet dancing, and then his hands going down his trunks to pull out his hotel key for Maven I found entertaining. I told my husband a lot of you are going to think I’m NUTS but I totally loved it last night. You have to admit Rico seems to be having a lot of fun out there. The Tag Team title match with La Resistance vs. Spike and Hurricane Helms was another good one. I felt so bad when so many fans were chanting boring. Hurricane Helms seems to be lost in the shuffle and looking or a tag team partner for him just doesn’t seem to be the way to go with Helms.
As far as the main event it was long and done extremely well. RVD lost and no Hunter isn’t burying him. He wasn’t going to win this match, it was set up to make most of us feel Kane was going after RVD. Especially since RVD and Kane had a talk backstage and RVD hoped Kane didn’t hate him. As Rob left Kane said he did hate him. So we were to that Kane would come out and take care of RVD. But back to the match, Hunter looked great out there, as did RVD, and I think it was out of all their matches the strongest and most entertaining. Now Kane didn’t attack RVD no it was Eric that got it from Kane. After badgering Kane to make an appearance during the show or get fired Kane came out and chokeslammed Eric off the ramp on to a table. A surprise ending, and a good one. We saw a completely bald headed Kane, I didn’t see any marks on his face but damn he looked scary too me. Seriously it was a good ending and I have no idea what will happen next week. So yeah it wasn’t a perfect show, but it still had some nice moments. Okay on to Smackdown and Stephanie and Zach’s match against The Big Show, boy I hope this one delivers. As of yesterday, Hulk Hogan is no longer with WWE. Some reports say it’s over between him and Vince others say it’s a hiatus, whatever the case is I’m sure not going to miss Mr. America and here’s hoping some of the young talent gets used more now that Hogan is gone.
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