I have a couple of things I want to mention before I talk about Raw. First, I have to give the WWE a lot of credit for the fans here in the United States. Out of curiosity I went to the Smackdown your vote and I am totally impressed that it lists the polling places to vote at and a number to call if there are any problems. The whole site is done extremely well. Now even better Sunday I asked if anyone new the name of Randy Orton’s song and who the group was. Well it was no surprise to me that I got so many responses to the question. Let me thank all of you that helped me out and I want to list the first names of all the readers that came through. By the way the song is called, Burn In My Light by Mercy Drive. Now let me thank, Kristina, Jason, Frank, Michael, Stewart, Chris, Nikki, Chris, Josh(quicksilver), TjwO, Sam, Max, Joe, Shad, Ben, Caleb, Tom, Jared, Mike, Steve, Carl, Fayad, Richard, James, Martin, Grant and Terrance. If I missed anyone I apologize but again thank you all. Okay now it’s on to Raw.
Raw came from Peoria last night, and I will say right off the crowd was damn good. They really came through. I found Raw to be a good show again not much wrestling but a lot was done out of the ring. First I was astonished at the reaction the opening match got. Snitzky vs. Eugene in a Street Fight. My God the fans were so into this one. The Eugene chants were strong and for a short match it definitely worked.
Don’t forget it’s Snitzky who put Kane out for God knows how long, we again saw the clip of Kane’s throat being destroyed. So Snitzky once again tried to do the same stunt to Eugene but Regal came out just in time. But a good opening match, way better than I though it would be. After that, Hunter appeared on the titan tron, he wasn’t showing up live in Peoria because he was fed up with the treatment he got last week by the faces of Raw. I thought Hunter’s promo was done very well. He gave those guys a week to get their act together. They showed him no respect and they better change there tune because next week Hunter will be back. Hunter also said that Raw without him is nothing. He’s the diamond on the show. As I said Hunter put this one over brilliantly believing that Raw can’t survive without him. I hope all of you know that Paul Levesque who portrays Triple H was acting. Yeah we all know that but I had to laugh, it seems like one of the biggest anti Triple H guys immediately took every word that Hunter said extremely seriously. I just wish people would realize that this is a character, a character doing his job as a heel and saying anything to bring out the anger in the fans. Do I think Hunter feels he’s the best in the company? No, I don’t maybe at one time he did but now, no I don’t believe that, and I don’t buy it that he feels Raw is nothing without him or that he fills the seats in the arenas. He’s saying all of this to go with Hunter the egomaniac character. Okay so enough said no Hunter on Raw.
She might have lost the Diva contest, but now Maria has been hired to do interviews. Wow just what we all needed. She interviewed Tajiri about Hunter’s remarks. And the Japanese Buzzsaw was great saying they are all sick of Hunter and they’ve had it with him. As he’s talking a very friendly Ric Flair came up to Tajiri to shake hands but Tajiri wasn’t buying that, and that’s when Batista attacked him from the back. Okay now Flair and Batista come to the ring all very cocky and Ric doing a sweet promo blasts the locker-room for their treatment of Triple H last week. He demands that Eric Bischoff restore order. Out comes Eric whom I think looks great with his new look. Eric looks pissed and he’s no longer an Evolution fan. First he makes a few matches for the Survivor Series. Christian v. Shelton for the IC title. Lita vs. Trish for the Women’s title and this one surprised me because of the man named to be in this match. It will be a classic Survivor Series match with Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho/Randy Orton and Maven vs. Triple H, Batista, Edge and here’s the shocker, Gene Snitzky. Wow I didn’t expect that at all. I guess Ric Flair didn’t either, he was left out. When Flair questioned Bisch about this Bisch really gave it to him. I found this segment to be damn good. Eric is done taking orders from the group.Eric said “Triple H said Raw is nothing without him, well without the World Title Triple H is nothing. I totally liked the direction of Eric’s character last night, for once being a man and not cowering to Evolutions every whim. Also the winners of this 8- man match get to run Raw for a month. Eric is taking a month off and each week one of the guys that came from the winning team gets to run the show. That again didn’t sit will with Ric and Batista. A really strong segment. One of my favorites of the night. Christian vs. Hurricane Helms was next but it was kind of put on the back burner when Edge came out to plug his new book. It was definitely hard to keep track of the match since Edge was talking non stop and Lawler was just helping things along. I thought Edge pimping the book was done well. He could have cared less about the match that was taking place it had to be all about him. I thought he got a pretty good face reaction when he came out that totally surprised me, but Edge stuck to the heel mode and that got even stronger a little later. By the way even though the match was secondary, Christian won and Benjamin ran out hoping to get a little of Christian. Here’s where it all fell apart, Viscera pops out, he’s Christians “ONE NIGHT ONLY PROBLEM SOLVER.” Yeah they really needed his appearance. I just don’t get that but it didn’t really wreck anything and Vis took Shelton out with a BIG splash.
Edge was back being interviewed by Todd Grisham and Todd asked the million dollar question. Would Edge be there with Chris Benoit in their match against La Resistance for the Tag Team titles? Edge definitely planned on working with Benoit. That’s when Benoit showed up a little pissed off and said he didn’t need good old Edge to show up. So this segment is making me want to see the match against La Resistance even more. Maven entered the Evolutions locker room. He starts talking trash to Ric and Batista. And Ric isn’t putting up with that, just when you think there’s going to be a little confrontation between Maven and Batista, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton show up and Randy tried to put a little scare into both Evolution members by telling them to worry about the Survivor Series, because should they lose they may not have a future thanks to the stipulations. A good segment, one where you really wonder if Evolution is going to pull out a win at the pay per view. I know I have my doubts.
Finally Simon Dean shows up. I’m going to tell you know I laughed a lot during this one. Simon but to me he will always be ECW’S Nova was great. He held his own on the mic and his insults to two real fans were definitely cruel yet humorous. And the insult to the “plant” the guy with no teeth at first really made me feel for him, but once he got in the ring I knew this guy was part of the act. I would like to see Simon get into a feud and wrestle but again he came off quite good last night. Is anyone noticing I have only talked about two matches so far? Yeah again wrestling didn’t play a big part on the show last night. Chris Benoit ended up facing both Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier for the tag team titles. Edge was too busy plugging that book and he also felt that Benoit backstage made it clear that Edge wasn’t welcomed. I’ll tell you again Chris worked his ass off and this was one good match. I knew as I’m sure all of you did when Edge left the broadcast area to “help” Benoit he had no intention of doing that at all. Benoit lost and La Resistance wins again. I’ll tell you I’m so tired of La Resistance with the belt but since there really is no other tag teams on Raw who else is going to hold them? It’s sad that the tag team division has totally suffered on Raw. Edge didn’t help Benoit but he sure took Benoit out after the match. First with one of the tag team belts and then with the spear and finally putting the Crippler Crossface on Chris. Yeah Edge’s mean streak really grew last night.
Flair and Batista tried again with Eric backstage. Flair wanted Eric to get rid of the stipulation that he made for the Survivor Series. Naturally NO was Eric’s answer. And I guess because Ric and Batista were getting the best of Bisch, Bisch then made a match. It would be Maven/Jericho and Orton vs. Flair/Batista and Triple H. Eric wasn’t buying that Hunter wasn’t there. However if Hunter didn’t show then it would be a handicap match. Eric again did a super job standing up for himself. Now the controversy really starts. Last night before the show WWE.COM had a little thing about two new characters showing up on Raw. They made up a very serious storyline about two Arab Americans, proud of their country, yet with what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 they now face a new relationship with their fellow U.S. citizens. I read this and I’m thinking why the hell do this and bring up the tragedy of 911? I’m watching these two new guys, Muhammad Hassan and his manager Khosrow Daivari and right off you know that these two are not going to be faces. I’m picturing nothing but loud boos and chants against these guys. The reason? They came up with Praise Allah and you can just tell that there is going to be anti American sentiments with Hassan and Daivari. Daivari translates in Arabic. While I might be jumping the gun I see nothing but extremely negative things coming from this. Instead of making Hassan and Davari two guys the fans could embrace, you watch the creative team get so carried away with this, this is going to be painful.
Another match but not one that I will spend time on. Poor Shelton Benjamin is stuck with Viscera but thankfully Shelton wins. Now on to Trish. What a super job she did in the ring with the Lita video. Calling Lita the walking kiss of death since anyone she is with either leaves WWE or is injured and finished. I found Trish to be a true bitch and that is a total compliment. I was totally impressed by her. Lita coming out to attack Trish really didn’t do much for me and Gail Kim helping Trish out again did nothing for me, but Trish gets nothing but two thumbs up from me.
I really liked the main event with Orton/Jericho and Maven vs. Flair and Batista. Hunter never showed up. Flair and Batista battled twice as hard and I’ll tell you week after week Batista is looking damn good out there, I totally love his character. I want to say as much as I’m a Maven fan; I’m not feeling his push. I would have preferred Shelton to be with this group. I had waited a long time for Maven to join Evolution. But when he got hurt and missed a lot of time it hurt his momentum. He’s been stuck on Heat for awhile since his return, but having him in this mix with Orton, Jericho and Benoit just isn’t working for me. I don’t feel the fans were exactly with him either. It’s not to say he’s not good he is, but I think a bigger build up was needed before he got to where he is. Anyway a good match with Flair thrown out of the ring and Batista getting the worst of it and being pinned. And at one point Hunter’s music played and with smiles from Flair and Batista the Hunter that appeared was a very funny Tajiri in a wig. So Hunter’s boys lost and a very angry Batista pushed Flair down after Flair went to him. I’m seeing Evolution coming to an end rather soon. Many of you emailed me with the thinking that Flair will turn face and join Randy while Batista will stay with Hunter. I definitely can see that happening. I’m sure Hunter is going to get heat from Flair and Batista for not being there for them.
A very good ending focusing on one ANGRY Batista. With just a few flaws Raw definitely came off well. And it’s on to Impact and Smackdown. On Impact I’m hoping to see a lot less Jarrett and a lot more guys from the X Division wrestling. On Smackdown, please let the Tough Enough stuff be on even shorter than last week. I’m hoping to see Book at his best like he has been the last couple of weeks. And I look forward to more matches made for the Survivor Series. Before I go I don’t how many of you know that Test, Albert and Billy Gunn were released yesterday from WWE. I predict a Gunn/Road Dogg reunion soon on Impact. I can’t say I’m sorry to see any go but I definitely wish them the best.
Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com
