RAW COVERAGE
The 7/19 episode of Monday Night RAW was a solid show, with a great live crowd, and tremendous wrestling. For the better part the storylines were solid as well. The only clear negative on the program was the ridiculous Divas Search segment.
They opened the show with a package recapping the Triple H and Eugene stuff from last week, which led into Triple H’s music (no pyro this week), and The Game walked out. He cut a promo on Eugene which ended in a fart sound, as Brian Gewirtz and Vince McMahon were cracking up backstage, thinking they’re selling us a top product. H says Eugene was never his friend, and that Eugene is gone. He then says that Eugene is pathetic. He rolls footage from last week, as we see William Regal and Chris Benoit teared up, trying to check on Eugene’s condition. H says they’re pathetic as well. Eric Bischoff’s theme plays (first time in a while), and he comes out to say it’s official — Eugene is out of WWE. That’s coming off a chat Bischoff had with his sister. As a thank-you for taking care of Eugene (and marrying Stephanie), Bischoff then says that Triple H will get a World Title Match next week, when it will be an Iron Man 60-minute match. He then says what SmackDown did was nothing, compared to that! (It’s like beating on a dead dog.) William Regal interrupts and he says “This is for you, Eugene,” as he starts laying Triple H out. Security escorts Regal out of the arena (and all the way to Blackpool).
— The opening wasn’t so good in my opinion. I didn’t like the fart joke, nor Triple H’s promo that much, seeing as they’re STILL managing to overkill Eugene, when he isn’t even there. It was OK for a start, though, and the announcement for next week’s Iron Man match saved this segment. William Regal’s interaction was Triple H was well done, and Regal played it off well, too.
Sylvan Grenier defeated Tajiri. The Japanese Buzzsaw starts a “USA” chant before his match. Rhyno and Conway are at ringside. After a lot of kicks from Tajiri, Grenier managed to win the match with a face buster, and by holding the tights.
— I’ve been enjoying this feud, and I like the fact that they’re giving Rhyno and Tajiri some TV time. I really do hope this goes on and the two win the tag team championships, because they deserve some time in the spotlight. Both are good workers too, and it’s always a pleasure to see a Tajiri match. La Resistance continue their streak of improvement, as well.
They aired footage from last week’s House Shows.
— As many people have said it before, they need to make the House Shows seem important for us to want to go see them. That’s a good step.
The horrible Divas Search segment was next, as all ten of them were on the Highlight Reel. I won’t bother recapping all of this garbage. With one sentence, Chris Jericho told them there’s an envelope of immunity hidden somewhere in Bischoff’s office, and whoever finds it can’t get eliminated no matter what. They tear Bischoff’s office apart, and find nothing, until Jericho disappears and Bischoff coms, and yells at them, calling them “bimbos.” They found that funny. This is the future.
— This has to be one of the worst segments in RAW History. I’m not overexaggerating either. It was ridiculous. I didn’t know who to feel bad for — Chris Jericho, Eric Bischoff, or the fans? Bischoff and Jericho tried their best, but they had nothing to work with.
Tyson Tomko with a real Diva in Trish Stratus defeated Hurricane with Stacy. Trish distracted Hurricane on the apron, after Stacy had distracted Tomko earlier in the match, which allowed Tomko to hit the high boot on Hurricane, to get the pin. After the match, Tomko goes after Stacy, until Rosey, who’s no longer in training makes the save. Hooray!
— Another average match, where Tomko didn’t look as bad. Nobody cared to tell us why Stacy is with Hurricane. She hasn’t had a problem with Trish, nor has she hooked up with Hurricane. But hey, who cares, right? Wasn’t it about time Rosey wasn’t in training? It’s been two years!!! I liked how this was done, though there were a few negatives.
Ric Flair was prepping Batista for his match with Chris Benoit, when Big Dog.. er… Triple H said he needs to talk to Batista (who got a huge pop most of the night, having in mind he’s from Washington, DC, and was at home).
Chris Benoit defeated Batista via DQ in a non-title match, after Batista continously kicked Benoit stiff in the head, as the champ was down on the apron of the ring. The match they had by that point was good, with mostly Batista dominating.
— This was done well, but while Batista came off looking strong from the segment, the same can’t be said about Benoit. He took the beating throughout the match, and was destroyed at the end. I didn’t mind the screwjob finish, but I would have rather seen a different version of it. Overall, this segment was good.
Lita saw Matt backstage, and he said he doesn’t mind speaking to her, but he needs more time to figure things out in their relationship. Lita said that’s fine, and she added that she loves him, but she’ll have this baby with or without him. Ohhhhhh.
— I like that they’re taking it slow with this storyline, seing as we have at least seven more months to stretch. And that’s only if the baby is born earlier.
Todd Grisham interviewed Randy Orton backstage, asking him about tonight’s rematch with Edge and how he felt about not having the IC Title. Orton started talking well of himself and mentioned that Edge’s first reign as IC champ lasted one day, whereas his lasted seven months. That’s when Edge came over. After being shown Orton’s shirt, Edge said that Orton has self-confidence problems, and needs attention. He then added that he could understand, since Orton’s father was mostly known for being Roddy Piper’s bitch. He added that if Cowboy Bob wore a condom and not a cast, they wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. Hilarious promo. Orton came back by saying he’ll make Edge his bitch tonight. Very good promo!
Lawler and Ross hyped that you could vote for the Diva Search. I won’t be surprised if they shows us the results in percentages, as to not to show how many people actually voted. The Diva with the fewest votes is eliminated.
Kane defeated Chris Jericho, after Jericho had beaten him via countout, but Bischoff ordered the match to coninute as a no disqualification, no count outs, falls count anywhere bout. Kane took Jericho outside the ring, and into the crowd, where Batista threw Jericho against a hockey wall. He then gave him a stiff clothesline, as Kane rolled over and pinned him.
— This match was definitely good, and Jericho, for a second week in a row, managed to bring the best out of Kane. Kane should be given a lot of credit as well. Ever since he worked with Chris Benoit, he’s had good matches — first with the champ in two bouts, then with Hardy, and now with Jericho. Both these men deserve a push, Jericho especially. He remains one of the most underrated guys on RAW, and it’s a shame. They did a good job of portraying Batista as a monster. Good match, and great segment.
Coach had the divas come out one more time, as they good booed, and so did he. The SmackDown Rebound then aired.
Edge defeated Randy Orton to retain his IC Championship, after a backslide, when he used the ropes for the second week in a row to score the pinfall. In another tremendous wrestling match, Orton and Edge went back and forth. Edge his a spear, followed by an RKO by Orton, followed by another spear by Edge. At the end, it was the Canadian with the victory and the belt. Tremendous bout.
— This was, without a doubt, a great main event match. I’m surprised with the progress Randy Orton has undergone. The first thing I told Trevor after I saw this match was “What happened? How did Randy Orton get so good?” If you haven’t noticed the change he’s undergone (and it’s all been improvement inside the ring), then you need to ob serve more carefully! This is the future, and i’m glad to say it. I wish Orton the best of luck. Edge gave another tremendous performance. He’s proving himself as much as he can, and somewhere down the line, they’ll probably turn him heel and give him a push. I wonder where this “cheat to win” thing is going on, but we’ll find out eventually. Great main event, which helped the show.
WWE SUES MARVEL COMICS; OTHER NEWS
As several souces have reported today, World Wrestling Entertainment has recently filed a lawsuit against Marvel Comics in order to maintain the right of the “Hulk Hogan” name. The reason behind WWE seeking that is their 24/7 Video-on-demand channel. They will certainly need the “Hulk Hogan” name in order to plug the channel well. According to Bloomberg News, Marvel is claiming that WWE’s rights on the name have expired this month, whereas WWE is firing back by saying that they have rights of the name until March 2005. This whole thing began about 19 years ago, when in 1985 WWE had to pay Marvel Comics for the “Hulk Hogan” name, as the company came forth and said that Hulk Hogan’s TV character was infringing on the rights of their “Incredible Hulk” character. Many people remember that this was a big reason as to why WCW chose to call Hogan “Hollywood Hogan” and miss out on the “Hulk” ordeal.
Monday Night RAW scored a 3.7 rating last night. The season average has been at 3.8.
As I previously reported, although WWE couldn’t sell out both of their shows on the Japan tour, they did gross around $2 million from both nights alone. That’s quite an achievement. Saturday’s show was sold out, whereas Friday’s house was pretty full as well. Obviously, this is nothing but a positive for business.
The official WWE SummerSlam website opened shortly after the Vengeance PPV. You may view the site by clicking HERE.
Speaking of SummerSlam, although Jim Ross mentioned that the event is sold out, there’s still a very few seats left on Ticketmaster.ca, so for those interested of going to the PPV, you might want to log on as soon as possible!
A great article by Chris Nowinski has hit the net. He wrote a guest article for The Union Leader online. You can read the piece by clicking HERE. Nowinski discusses what playing football in your youth can do, or the risk of concussions and how they affect us down the line, to be more exact.
Word has it that TNA ran several commercials during RAW in some markets last night. They have spent a lot of money so they could make sure that everyone is aware of their Impact show. Hoefully, it’ll be worth it.
In an interesting tidbit, WWE.com had several of the house show cards following the SummerSlam PPV with a main event of Chris Benoit vs. Ric Flair for the World Championship. Those are subjec to change, and from what I’ve seen, some have been taken down already. Others, keep getting re-posted.
The July 31 SmackDown house show in New Jersey, originally advertised as having JBL vs. Guerrero vs. Undertaker for the WWE Championship in a triple threat, now has a new main event in JBL vs. The Undertaker.
I leave you with the following recap (thanks to James Walsh) from ProWrestling.com’s interview with Ric Flair:
— James mentions Bret Hart’s response to Flair’s book posted on several websites last week. Flair claims to not have seen the article but states, “I feel sorry for Bret Hart.” He then goes on to say Mark Madden, the editor of Flair’s book and former WCW Nitro host, sent Flair proof that Bret talked about the incident on Montreal the day after Owen died which Bret apparently had always denied doing. “He seized the opportunity to jump back into the limelight to express how bitter he was about the way the WWF handled his departure. This week I’m headed for Canada. I’m going to be on every national TV show in Canada and Bret Hart will be sorry that he ever opened his mouth!”
— “Vince McMahon, as creative as he is, couldn’t figure out a way to fire Bret Hart. He (Bret) couldn’t draw a dime!”
— “I never said I didn’t like his style, I just said he wasn’t a good wrestler,” said Ric when talking about Mick Foley. “Falling off a ladder into a bed of thumb tacks has nothing to do with pro wrestling. It’s certainly not the craft I learned.” Flair then runs down a list of great workers through history and poses a question to James, “How many of them do hardcore wrestling?” James replies by saying, “None of them.” Ric answers quickly saying, “Thank you!”
Thanks for reading.
