Hey there! After a much deserved break, I’m back in action this week, giving you the latest! Where was I? Believe it or not, I actually wasn’t busy. I even had a RAW N & A last Tuesday for you, but never got around to finishing it. Then, my birthday was on October 3 (this past Friday), and with Monday being a holiday here, you can imagine how that went. Anyway, I’m back, and while we’re awaiting the beginning of the Arnold era here in California, I’ve got other goodies for you that deal with Monday Night RAW. Away we go…
Do I really need to do a recap every week? I’ll just say this — Check out our RAW Coverage, because it’s that damn good (pun intended). From Roland’s RAW Rage to Eric’s RAW is Erico, it’s worth your time. One of these days Joe will have another RAW Wishes column. I know that man better than you know your neighbor … if that made sense. At any rate, RAW scored yet another 3.4 rating this week (just like last week), and it seems that with Monday Night Football back on the air, and the program decreasing in value, things aren’t headed in the right way. I hope I’m wrong and a change in this pattern occurs. On to RAW…
What did I think of the show? It was yet another week. While I can honestly say that last week’s program was better than their recent editions (funny, there were no McMahons on the show last week), I can without a shadow of a doubt tell you that this past Monday was nothing special. There was one good match in Chris Jericho and Christian vs. Rob Van Dam and Lance Storm, and the rest was just out there for whatever reason.
The main event was horrendous. I don’t think Goldberg can be blamed really. From what I understand, a reason for the failure of the match is the fact that Mark Henry forgot some of his spots during the bout, and Goldberg isn’t exactly your Kurt Angle who can pick things up and make them better on the spot. WWE should have known that when they put him in this match, and they should have made sure that Henry knows what’s going on, since Big Bill can’t carry him. I don’t like that Henry was dominating the whole thing. While I can appreciate that he’s the World’s Strongest Man and that he’s quite big, Goldberg is a monster. I take that back. He’s supposed to be a monster. He’s supposed to act immortal and turn down everyone and everything in his path of destruction. I thought the Jackhammer spot, as well as the spear on HBK were good spots, but the rest of the match was at least a level below average.
I think that we can safely call RAW the Triple H Show. Really. Last week, I was totally behind the storyline with the $100,000 bounty (Unfortunately, I couldn’t post N & A and share my thoughts), but I’m not feeling the same way one week later. It’s become obvious that the goal of the storyline isn’t to elevate new people and bring them to main event status, but it’s to keep Triple H alive on TV. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed his promo on RAW. Besides that, Goldberg spearing HBK sets up a match between the two, and I don’t think Michaels needs to be elevated at this time (since he’s almost retired). From what I’ve been reading online, the plan is for Kevin Nash to end up collecting the bounty, which would mean that Big Kev will put Goldberg on the shelf. At this point, I’ve almost but lost all hope in RAW. I would be ready to defend the company and carefully analyze the moves they make in their top storyline, but it’s absolutely obvious that it’s become the Triple H Show instead of RAW. I have a simple question to prove my point — Why is it that nobody cares about the title right now, but more attention is put on the $100,000 offered by The Game? And why is it that when he wins it back, the belt will become all important again?
So after busting their asses last week, Rob Van Dam and Christian, both working through various injuries and struggling through pain, not only appeared on the show but once again wrestled in the match of the night. Kudos to WWE for FINALLY doing the right thing with Lance Storm. It was goofy but it worked perfect to get him back into the scheme of things. I just hope they won’t pull a fast one and forget all about him again next week. Right now, he’s at a perfect place, alongside guys like Rob, Christian, and Y2J. They are the people who can actually wrestle but have no place in the main event, according to Triple H Show script. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy watching these four wrestle, and I think it was quite obvious that their match on RAW was the best of the night.
While I really don’t think Maven is at the point of his career where he’s ready for such a push, I appreciate WWE trying to put new talent over and push them somehow, someway. (Since they can’t do it in the top spot, according to the Triple H Show producer.) In fact, I was enjoying the tag team match before the main event, but Maven blew the spot with the ref and in the process made Trish look dumb, and Steven Richards had not to sell the ropes spot, in order to carry on with the match. On the other hand, Maven’s promo looked solid on RAW, and of course, Flair buried him into the ground verbally, but it was worth it. I don’t know what will happen next week, but I believe the plan was for Maven to join up with Randy Orton and break away from Evolution. Whether this is happening or not, and when it’s happening, is a whole different story, but we shall see what goes on. As far as Flair goes, I can’t believe that man. He’s proven to me that he’s without a shadow of a doubt a wrestling legend, and one, if not the, best in the business. From his amazing promos to perfected in-ring work, he is still great at his age. If they want to make Maven look good, Flair is the man for the job.
From what I have read lately here on TBL, as well as on the TBL Forums, people tend not to understand where I stand on the whole Kane/Shane storyline. Maybe I shouldn’t comment on it at all, but instead I’ll work on being more clear. I lost all hope in it when they turned Kane into a shish-kebab and then had him return all fine and dandy the next week. What I mean is that I moved on from it. I don’t look at it as a wrestling analyst, or even as an intelligent fan. I look at it as the average WWE fan who does only one chant and that’s “Holy Sh*t.” What I mean is that I simply enjoy the crazy, unreal, no-sense segments they do. It’s just good to laugh sometimes, and to see a man come out of a fire in perfect shape, or another man walk without pain after having his testicles electrocuted is just funny. A classic American humor reminds me of their feud — silly, goofy, stupid, makes no sense. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the high spots, or the insane spots. I do think they’re good sometimes. For example, I thought that the idea of having Kane in that car wreck was horrible wrestling-storyline-wise because we all know that nobody can survive that. But at the same time, it was just a cool segment. Everyone else you ask who complains about that storyline should admit that there’s been at least one thing about this feud that they’ve found unique and interesting in some way. The follow-up of the events has been poor, and that’s the problem. I’m starting to ramble here, so I’ll move on.
This is just a personal opinion, but don’t you think that Trish Stratus and Victoria put up much better fights than Lita and Gail? No offense to Lita, but she has a lot of work to do. Her moves look good, she’s gotten rid of a lot of ring rust, but watching her move around the ring is bad. She’s slower than Mark Henry at times and she barely moves. I guess I just prefer the quick action and momentum changes that Trish and Victoria always have in their matches. Molly and Gail are also quite agile. So is Lita, but she seems different to me. Of course, WWE will just go ahead and give her the belt, since they love to do that with returning stars. I hope that will allow Lita to live her dream again, because she deserves it. Coming back from the injury she had in itself is an amazing task, and no matter what, I always enjoy watching her perform, and love her work.
Other RAW Thoughts… Is there a worse possible way to bury Hurricane and Rosey?… Am I the only one who simply doesn’t care about the Test/Steiner/Stacy saga?… Why did Stacy come out with Steiner when both of them belong to Test?… How great was it to see Lance Storm back in action in a match that finally fit him well?… Does WWE realize that unless Austin fights Jericho, their feud, as well as Christian’s involvement is a waste of talent?… Do you too fear what they have planned for Booker T when he returns?… Can you say Goldust?… Is Jerry Lawler starting to make a pattern of repeating one thing over and over until 10:30 PM for every RAW?… Where the hell is Tommy Dreamer?… How ironic is it that the belt is made to look unimportant when Executive Producer, CEO, Chairman, and Owner of RAW Triple H isn’t around?… Since I didn’t get to do it last week, I’d like to send my “thank you” wishes to Christian and Rob Van Dam for delivering one of the best matches I’ve seen in recent times on RAW last week. They were both amazing.
Hulk Hogan is all but confirmed for the upcoming huge TNA PPV on November 30th. NWA-TNA will be putting up a 3-hour event and the plan is for Hogan to wrestle Jarrett at the show. They’re calling it a “Mega PPV.” If you don’t know anything about it, you better check out Trevor’s Headlines & Scrutiny, the N & A of NWA-TNA as we like to call it. I don’t cover TNA in this report, but I thought I’d drop my two cents on this topic. It’s both a good and a bad move for TNA. It’s always nice to have name recognition in this business, and no matter how old or in what shape he is, Hulk Hogan is THE name you want. The negative side of things, however, in these times is how do you use him, and if it’s a one-time shot, do you really need to associate with him? I think TNA will make a lot more money by building themselves as a “fresh” company with youngsters and new talents who take things to another level. While they do that, I don’t see why guys like Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan are at their shows. Maybe it’s good to combine the best of both worlds, as some fans would be interested in seeing those two legendary names. I can’t say that I disagree with this point either. To me, the Hogan/TNA issue is a so-so deal, but I hope it’ll work out for TNA.
Well, that will wrap it up. I hope you enjoyed this edition, and I assure you that I’m back in business. This should have proven it to you! Thanks for sticking up with me, and have a great week!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
