Hey all and welcome to yet another edition of News & Analysis. I thank you very much for checking the section out. RAW was in Anaheim this past Monday night, and since yours truly lives in Los Angeles, I managed to make the trip and go catch the show live. It was a great experience. Like WWE says, “There’s nothing like seeing WWE live,” and believe me, no matter what the status of the business is, there’s indeed nothing like catching a live show. If RAW or SmackDown are coming to your town and you have the ability to go, do it!
I’ll go through each segment of the show and add in live notes, as well as my comments (the usual analysis) of how things are going for all storylines. Before we do that, RAW’s rating came in at a 3.8 this week, and the peak of the program was the return of The Rock, which ended up being the highest rated quarter of the two hours with a strong 4.6.
First off, there were four dark matches before RAW. Some of them will probably end up on the international edition of Sunday Night Heat. In the first bout, Nick Dinsmore defeated a jobber. Dinsmore looks like a mini Macho Man of sorts. The crowd got on them with “Boring” chants and applauded once the match was over. Man, that one dragged forever. After that, Matt Hardy came out to a huge pop and fought Maven, who got a decent pop mixed with boos. Hardy wins this one with a Twist of Fate. Hardy got huge cheers, and it goes to show that maybe he should be face at this moment. I feel that he’s a strong heel character, but at the same time he’s gotten so over with his V1 gimmick that people cheer him. In what was one of the highlights of the night for me, I was sporting the V1 hand gesture when Hardy looked to myself and my friend, and nodded doing the gesture himself! It certainly pays off to have good tickets since we were feet away from the wrestlers! Anyway, back to the matches… In the third bout, Steven Richards, acting as a face, came defeated the WWE superstar who was signed recently to OVW I believe and has been making the routes with a flying carpet gimmick. He was actually entertaining and managed to get over as a heel. Richards makes a tremendous face and it makes you wonder why WWE has never used him as such… In the final dark match, Rico defeated Tommy Dreamer after Jackie made an interference in the match. It was a very solid bout with two good workers who should be on RAW more often.
I can’t believe this… The first chant before RAW just had to be “You screwed Bret,” when Hebner was leaving after being the ref for Dreamer/Rico. Ugh.
This is the first time I’ve seen Howard Finkel not getting booed… at least not too much.
Lillian Garcia may not still be into strudel, as Rock would suggest later, but she got a huge pop for the way she sang the National Anthem, and she even got a USA chant going.
While having good tickets is a great advantage (it makes the experience that much better), you need to really watch out for the pyro. Ouch.
Jericho came out to a great ovation. The people seemed to be into the whole segment with Y2J, Christian, Lita, and Trish, but as it dragged on we got weary. The guy behind me screamed “Slap him already!” to Trish, and it was as if she heard him. Man, Trish went nuts on Jericho! She beat the crap out of him with those roses! The ring was covered in green and red and it took a lot of sweeping to get it clean during commercial break. In a funny spot, during the commercial break, Jericho and Christian were acting as if they were picking out thorns out of their backs and shoulders. I can’t say if it was real or they were “selling” the segment but it was hilarious. Trish and Lita tried their best to keep sad faces, but the divas spent the commercial break talking to each other… I really don’t know where they’re going here. Bischoff’s announcement for the Battle of the Sexes match was downright scary. I did not expect a twist like that, and I’m afraid that WWE is blowing this storyline away. Then again, from what I previously know, there’s a lot more left to do here and the ending should be enjoyable and a bit surprising. For those of you who didn’t catch it, Jericho didn’t seem all happy (as happy as Christian was) backstage after Bischoff’s announcement. I am somewhat excited for the PPV because I really don’t think there’ll be a fight, but then again you never know with the way women are treated on RAW. I’ll wait for the PPV and see how this one goes to give you more of an analysis.
It’s amazing that the Dudley Boyz still manage to get the kind of ovation they get. Many people have said that there’s something about them that just draws the fans in. That’s a very good point, and last night was no different. The match was a great opener of RAW, and I enjoyed it. The crowd loved it when Trish and Lita got in on the fun, while my section (especially the people in the front row) were busy taking photos of Trish’s behind. Overall, a good segment to get RAW off to a solid start.
Flair, backstage, said that Triple H is in the arena but doesn’t need to come out to the ring tonight. Why don’t they just tell us that he’s shooting a movie? That will make H look good, and it will not tease us that “he’s there but we can’t see him” because just like the TV fans, the people in the arena didn’t get Triple H. I am completely honest (and a bit surprised actually) when I say that… nobody really missed him, or seemed to care.
Batista and RVD had a good match that the crowd enjoyed. Batista does look huge in person, but I can tell you right now that he isn’t the biggest guy out there. When you go and see the show live, you can really see the size of the wrestlers and how well they’re presented on TV to create the illusion (more on that later)… For those of you who missed it, Batista and RVD botched one spot, but the two are reported to be OK and feeling fine. They both good ovations, and I think that Batista is improving inside the ring, so WWE can continue his push.
Cade and Jindrak had a good match with Venis and Storm, but it was short. At least they’ve done a good job of pushing the Tag Team Turmoil at Armageddon, so they get my thumbs up for that. WWE really did do a good job of pushing Armageddon last night, and after all, that was the goal of the show since it was the last one before the event.
Wow. I’ve gone to several RAW tapings to see the show live… not once have I ever heard or seen anything like Rock’s surprise appearance. The second his theme music (which by the way is new, and so is his video as you probably noticed) hit in the arena, pandemonium occurred. Loud cheers, screams, clapping, cheering, people moving. It’s hard to describe, really, but in one sentence — it was electrifying, entertaining, surprising, amazing, and certainly loud! Just that moment alone made the show a good one. As far as Rock goes, I really don’t need to say anything. I think that he can go away for as long as he has to, and when he comes back, he’ll be BETTER on the mic than ever. The man is simply amazing, and a God’s gift when it comes to this industry… I’ve heard several people complain that Rock shouldn’t have appeared this week since it was the show before a big PPV, but with it being in Anaheim, it was the only option. I don’t agree at all. If I had it my way, Rock would appear ANY TIME possible. Not only that, but he did manage to sneak in Armageddon in his promo… If you haven’t heard, The Rock will be back in January and stated himself that he’ll be at WrestleMania XX. You can read more over at WWE.com, as the site was able to interview The Great One.
Scott Steiner, Test, and Mark Henry beat Hurricane, Rosey, and Booker T. The crowd was hot for this one, and they got on Steiner’s back big time. During the commercial break, he went a bit too far with the interaction, as he was using a chair on one of his opponents, and several times swung the chair at fans at ringside. It was somewhat funny, but it got him a lot of heat. It later turned out well as he managed to use it as heel heat when he was tagged in. Test is huge in person, and he looks impressive. So does Booker T. Rosey and Hurricane are a fun team, and they got a loud pop, actually… This was to further hype the Tag Team Turmoil match, as well as the Booker/Henry feud. Unlike others, I’ve actually enjoyed that one. In fact, after seeing Henry live, I find him an OK guy. He’s not Mr. Wrestling for sure, but he’s certainly not that bad either. The spot where he picked Rosey up and did a spine buster on him was impressive. After hearing J.R. sell it later when I watched the tape, I got a good laugh out of it. Did you know that Henry is “dominating, by God, he’s dominating!”
The next match was your primary example of what TV production does when done well. It’s so hard to believe how short Molly and Trish are, that I won’t even start explaining. You just have to go life, get tickets near the ramp or the ring, and see them in person to see what I’m talking about. Trish is at 5’4, and around 120 lbs. She’s so short and tiny that it amazes me how different she’s portrayed on TV. The other divas are pretty light too, with Lita and Victoria being slightly taller and Lita more muscular. (She’s gained some weight since her return, but it’s all muscle mass it seems.) At any rate, the tag team match between the divas was great! It’s amazing what Fit Finlay has done with this division. They had the crowd going and WWE trusted them enough to give them the spot before the main event. They proved they deserve it. Very impressive by all four. It’s a shame that Molly isn’t defending the women’s title at the PPV.
The main event wasn’t all that good. I’ll be honest. One thing that stood out was Kane. He’s the biggest guy on RAW, hands down. Another thing I should note is that from the pyro, to his look, to the entrance, to his facial expressions, they have managed to create a “monster” and when you see it live, you look at him differently. When they had the shackles and the cops months ago, it probably looked even better… I’m somewhat looking forward to the main event for Armageddon, but it seems that while Goldberg and Kane have a good chemistry with each other, they can’t always get the best out of what they have. It’s a weird situation, and I’m somewhat having doubts if Triple H can carry them through a good match. Time will tell though. This one seems to be headed to a Goldberg win for the time being, and I guess Kane will have to get pinned this time, since it’ll allow for a continuation of their feud, and it’ll not do any bad for Triple H, who’s gotten pinned by Goldberg one too many times now.
That’s pretty much it for RAW. I hope you enjoyed this long review and analysis of the program. Overall, it was a good show. Certainly not as good as previous weeks, but having in mind that there’s a PPV this Sunday, all they had to do was promote, and promote they did! The appearance by The Rock was a great surprise that made the show much better!
I’ll have my Armageddon predictions with the rest of the TBL Staff when we put together the Armageddon Roundtable, so look out for that. Have a good week!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
