Well, following Armageddon and RAW this past Monday night, several things can be concluded about the current state of the RAW brand and WWE as a whole. When it comes to it, WWE has not been able to create any new main event status superstars on RAW for over a year now. It was also made obvious that the company doesn’t like “risqué” decisions which is sad, as that unexpected factor is what made it the soul survivor in the wrestling industry. Ironically enough, they consider some storylines they do “risqué.” On other fronts, for several weeks now, they’ve tried to put it into our heads that RAW is a “must-see” show, or the type of program that you can’t miss because there’s something surprising or shocking that happens every week, or at least there’s a significant progression in a storyline that is worth your attention. While that’s a very nice touch by WWE, they managed to deliver in previous weeks with the returns of Foley and Rock, and even dating weeks before that, the progression of the Jericho/Stratus storyline. However, this week’s show was a mixed bag. Let me get to explaining all of these points.
If you didn’t see Armageddon, you didn’t miss much. I, myself, am yet to see the whole PPV. From what I’ve seen though it wasn’t worth the 35 bucks that I actually didn’t pay WWE to see it. RVD vs. Orton would have to be the match of the night, and some of the booking decisions on the show left us scratching our heads.
Armageddon proved that WWE is scared, and when they don’t know what to do, they put the title on Triple H. There’s a lot of misconception about The Game and why he’s the World Champion. In my opinion, it’s a VERY edgy topic, because at this point in time, it’s a good thing to have him as the champion (yes, you read that right), and at the same time, a horrible thing to have him hold the title. The bottom line remains that whether he’s at wrong of what’s happening or not, he feels that he needs to have that belt around his waist to get over, and that is far from the truth. So why did Triple H win the belt on Sunday?
To answer that question, one has to look at the news that were reported earlier today. Apparently, Bill Goldberg was very unhappy in having to drop the strap to The Game, and has been continuously upset with the fact that his character has not been booked the right way since his debut. I guess since Big Bill was to get the World Title, he was quiet the past couple of months, and hasn’t been as vocal as he was following the PPV. It got to the point where he met up with Vince McMahon after the show and told him how he feels about the booking of his character. Goldberg is also unhappy that he’s being paid his downside guarantee (a pretty good sum of around $1.5 million) only, and isn’t making ANY money from merchandise, or bonuses. Big Bill’s deal with WWE expires in the beginning of next year, and obviously if there’s to be a renewal, the talks of one will be tough. It’d be much easier for WWE to go into any discussion if Goldberg wasn’t their champion.
Another fact to consider is that Goldberg has been booked by several promotions in Japan to wrestle at the beginning of January. By the way, this is why Bischoff suspended him for thirty days. Goldberg had to work what he signed up for, and will be headed to Japan soon.
With Evolution winning all the gold at Armageddon, WWE and Triple H can always say that The Game’s title win had to happen to “complete the cycle.” It’s a very edgy excuse that will certainly get a lot of critics of The Game interested.
At any rate… Let’s look beyond the silly excuses of why Goldberg isn’t champion right now. Let’s say that they indeed had to have him drop the belt. What do they do? I can tell you right now that I would rather have Triple H as the World Champion, and not Kane. Kane has been booked incredibly dumb since unmasking himself, whereas with Triple H, at least you know that him as champion is credible (after a whole year of sticking it down our throats), and whoever beats him for it will get some kind of a rub. Or will they? You can see what happened to Goldberg… Anyway, with Goldberg having to drop the belt, they immediately go to Triple H. That tells you one, and one thing only — they have built NO new talent at the main event status on RAW. The only positive that can come out of all this “Golden Evolution” crap is that Orton and Batista are somewhat elevated. Having in mind that Batista did the job for Michaels at Armageddon, that leaves me wondering if they’re the ones being elevated, or they’re just the little pawns in the King’s hand.
So, whether you think that Triple H made sure he won his belt back and he’s horrible for it, or you believe that this storyline could go somewhere else, we can definitely conclude that WWE has dropped the ball on creating superstars, and when it comes to the barrier, they always go to Triple H. How sad.
If you’re a true wrestling fan, then you liked the handicap tag match on RAW. It was a tremendous bout and it seems that many believe it was better than most (if not all) matches at the PPV. When Flair and Michaels are in the ring at the same time, you know for a fact that the match is going to be good. As far as the other participants go, Triple H finally wrestled on RAW again (and his old look is back), RVD continues to be sloppy, and Batista is doing his best to hang in there with the big boys. (Ugh, WCW talk…) I’d give that match a definite thumbs up though. Are RVD and Batista ever going to be able to get that power bomb/reversal spot right before they kill each other?
I actually had someone e-mail me and ask me if Shawn Michaels had any chance of winning the World Title in two weeks on RAW. I don’t think so.1) It’ll be a dumb move because the whole “Gold” Evolution storyline will fall apart before it could even take off. 2) It’ll look Triple H look like a goof. 3) If Michaels wins, he deserves, and will probably get a lengthy title reign this time around, and that can’t happen right now. So I don’t really see it happening, although in my opinion Michaels is one of the brand’s top three wrestlers, alongside Flair (yes, at that age), and Jericho.
It’s hard to believe that the same creative people who came up with probably the best storyline the company did this year — Trish Stratus and Chris Jericho — have completely twisted this one. I can’t say I dislike it, but it just seems that it has lost its heat, when it could have been (and it was) something big. I think that it’s pretty obvious what will happen from here, but WWE still has the opportunity to pick things up and add some steam to this one. There’s a lot of potential, and really, with that type of storylines it only takes one night to turn things around. Let’s hope for better days…
When Matt Hardy gets pinned in a match that involves Maven and Mark Henry, you know that something’s gone terribly wrong… Wow, they sure didn’t take long in killing V1 didn’t they? I’m starting to think if “someone else” was involved; after all, Hardy was one of SmackDown’s top attractions at one point in time. The best he can do right now is go away and return as V2 with something new. That is only if the company is willing to push him.
That’s very odd. I’m the only person online who actually liked John Heidenreich vs. Rico. Am I very wrong? Was the wrestling bad? I don’t know why, but I enjoyed the match, and the wrestling. I personally thought that Heidenreich looked much better inside the ring that he did in previous weeks, where he nearly killed people. Maybe I’m wrong.
Then we go to Mick Foley… If you liked his segment on RAW, then you liked the show. There’s probably a lot of people who did. And there’s probably that many and more who hated it.
It’s really tough for me to say where I stand on the Foley situation. I feel that by hyping up something the whole night and not delivering at the end, they disappointed a lot of fans. On the other hand, I almost flinched when I realized they were about to give away Foley’s wrestling return on free TV with no buildup whatsoever. Again, this has become an important part of RAW — They’re trying their best to make the show seem like a “can’t-miss-program” every week. It’s a good direction, but they have to be careful with what they do, because, like I said, pushing Foley’s return so much and not delivering certainly disappointed many.
I felt like being a fan on Monday night, so a part of me was very surprised to see Foley leave, and I gotta be honest with you — I liked it. It just made me (and a ton of others) tune in two weeks from now and see why, and what could possibly be happening. That was the goal of it all really. (I’m repeating myself, but again — This goes to show you that they are trying their hardest to get us to tune in every week.) However, another part of me thought that this was a horrible segment on so many levels. If that was someone else in Foley’s spot, I could have lived with it, but Foley is a “Hardcore Legend.” Not once in his career has he walked out, especially after being disrespected the way Randy Orton did right before Mick walked out. Of course, this storyline will lead to something much bigger for Foley — probably a story involving Steve Austin, or more likely a return to the ring at WrestlerMania or sooner, but there’s still a lot left in the open. A part of me just felt that it just wasn’t right. At the same time, it’ll be very exciting to see how they explain it in two weeks.
Folks, with what went down at Armageddon and on RAW the night after, the next several months of WWE TV (on Monday nights) promise to be very interesting and controversial. I have the feeling that things can improve greatly and the program could reach a great status again… or that it’ll crumble down to what it was one year ago with no progression made whatsoever. The pieces of the puzzle are out there, now we sit back and watch what picture WWE will create with them.
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
