I know I say this a lot but I must say it again, it’s great to be a wrestling fan. WWE has given me two nights in a row of fantastic programming. It started with the Survivor Series and continued right into last night’s Raw. Let me give you my thoughts on the pay per view and then go right to Raw. I hope I don’t go on and on but my enthusiasm is just too much for me to contain.
First as far as my picks I only missed two. I picked Chavo and Hunter’s team for the wins. This was one of WWE’s best pay per views in a long time. Let me quickly run down the matches and then I have to get to the backstage segments, they are definitely worth talking about. The only weak match that I saw was Taker vs. Heindenreich, I found that to be a total wash out. Team Angle vs. Team Guerrero also didn’t come off as I thought it would. It was good but definitely a Smackdown match not a pay per view quality match. It was great seeing John Cena in there. The focus was to have Carlito removed from that match because of his injury, and Cena chasing after him and running him out definitely worked very well. Booker T losing didn’t surprise me, however if he doesn’t get that belt next month then I will not only be surprised but I will be plenty angry. Book along with JBL worked hard, I enjoyed it including all the interference Orlando Jordan provided. The opening match was done so well. Billy Kidman vs. Spike vs. Chavo vs. Rey Mysterio got the crowd going with a nice action packed match.
I was so anxious to see Lita wrestle since she’s been out of action for such a long time. But was I disappointed that a match never took place? Not at all. I was thrilled with Lita’s performance as one chic totally out of control and finally able to rip Trish apart. This segment though it was short, was brilliant. A bloodied Trish walking back to the ramp in total shock was a site I won’t forget. My two favorite matches had to be Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian and the main event. Shelton never wrestled better than what I saw Sunday night, Christian in the ring has always been someone to watch. You could just feel the chemistry between both men. This was probably the match of the night, with the main event right behind it. And before I forget, the Cleveland fans were just terrific. I think the only time they kept quiet was during Taker’s match. I was totally impressed with them and watching them get so into the match with Chris Benoit/Randy Orton/Maven and Chris Jericho vs. Hunter/Batista, Edge and Snitzky made this so worth watching.
I really expected Hunter’s team to win so watching Randy pin Hunter was a nice surprise for me. This match as far as I’m concerned could have go on longer but it still was one of the most entertaining matches of the night. And watching the crowd go nuts when Randy won just made the ending super. As you can see it was basically a big thumbs up for the wrestling part of the Survivor Series. And the backstage segments were just as good. Watching two freaks like Heidenreich and Snitzky face to face grunting and complimenting each other on the sick things that they do and then saying they would see each other later was so creepy yet so funny. I think after that both men should be caged up. Another great segment was Angle upset with Edge for what Edge wrote about Angle in his book. This was like watching Angle and Edge years ago when they had so many great backstage moments. And then having Eugene with is inflatable hand annoying the hell out of Kurt was even better. The more Eugene went on the more put out Angle became. I love when there’s interaction between the brands. Also I caught one thing. And I have a feeling Wrestlemania is going to be Angle vs. Shawn Michaels. Kurt threw it up at Edge about losing to an injured Shawn at Taboo Tuesday. He then said that he could make Michaels tap out. I would love to see an Angle/HBK feud and I wish they would start some feuds between both brands to freshen things up. Survivor Series gets an almost perfect score from me I am so happy that I ordered it, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world.
And that’s how last night’s Raw made me feel. It was so great to see Maven open the show and announce the matches. He did a nice job on the mic and the opening match with La Reisitance vs. Rhyno and Tajiri vs. Eugene and William Regal was terrific. And talk about an enthusiastic crowd? Indianapolis didn’t want to be outdone by the Cleveland group and they came to be heard, they won me over immediately. So did this match, there wasn’t one weak person in there and Eugene came off looking really good. I knew that LaResistance was going to lose and I figured it would be to Regal and Eugene. The crowd went nuts for their victory and yeah this definitely set the tone for the rest of the show. Some celebrate victories with champagne; others like Eugene pour chocolate milk all over anyone that is around. And the targets last night were Regal and Maria. And the bonus, well for you guys anyway was Maria making sure that you could at least see her right breast through her wet blouse. I’ll tell you Regal really came to life on this one. His comments were hysterical. Eugene happened to notice and Regal told him not to look or he would go blind, but Regal wouldn’t mind if he went blind. This was classic Regal!
I thought the night belonged to Maven and his interaction with Hunter came off very strong. This segment was too long it could have been shortened BUT Hunter did a nice job playing mind games with Maven. Hunter’s invitation to Maven to join Evolution would give Maven everything he could possibly want. And if Maven accepted he would forget about the title match that Maven gave himself earlier in the show. As I said this could have been done in half the time but it was a great way to make the fans wonder if Maven was ready to forget the World Title and become a member of Evolution. Lita beat Molly in a very short match. But it wasn’t the match that got my attention. Again it was the aggressiveness of the new Lita that did it for me. After the match Trish came out wearing a face guard and complaining about Lita breaking her nose. Lita was then attacked by Molly and Trish immediately ran in there, but the new and improved Lita was able to DDT Molly and then punch Trish right in the nose. Trish was in agony and Lita left the ring so pleased with herself, she even had smile on her face similar to Kane, which really intrigued me. This Lita is quite appealing and I hope we get a lot more of it.
At the beginning of the show when Maven was listing the matches, one match he made was Coach vs. JR. As weird as that sounded JR and Coach were in the ring ready to get it on. Maven then came out and said that both guys misunderstood. Thematch he made was that the J was silent and the R was followed by KO. And out came Randy Orton. Did the crowd eat this one up. Coach did his best to escape and ran into the crowd but Randy got him back in the ring and took Jonathan out in less than two minutes. Not an important match but one that entertained the fans, it’s always nice seeing Coach get his ass handed to him. Edge and Christian back together for one night. And the backstage interview with Todd Grisham was Gold. Edge coming off as way too big of a star to go back teaming with Christian. Bragging about being an author and passing Christian by. And Christian topping Edge with one great line, Edge should not strain his voice box or he’ll miss another six months. Another words Edge is constantly hurt. I thought Christian was totally great during his encounter with Edge. And so was Edge. I couldn’t wait to watch them work together last night.
Randy and Maven discussed Hunter’s offer. And again Maven did a nice job making the fans question what he had planned. Orton warned Maven about Hunter and Evolution and Maven came back with all the perks of joining the group. So far Raw is red hot. We got another good match with Edge and Christian taking on Shelton and Benoit. Tomko came out with the brothers and was unable to help them in a victory. I loved watching the four of these guys perform last night. And after Christian tapped out to the Crippler Crossface, it was Edge that totally lost it and brutalized his brother Christian. Again Edge’s heel character it totally working. This guy is a walking timebomb. I’m so glad the face character has disappeared. Now Ric Flair comes in to see if he can make Maven see that being with Evolution is the best thing in the world and he brings in two hot chics. Maven seems okay with Flair’s offer and the fans continue to wonder along with JR and Lawler about Maven’s decision. So we got a fast pillow fight with Stacey vs. the $250,000.00 winner Christy. The only thing that I liked was Hunter watching this backstage and totally turned on by Christy. His best line? “I would like to fluff her pillows.” Ah that worked for me but you know what? The way Hunter basically put down Batisa was outstanding. Cocky Triple H figuring on Maven joining the group didn’t want to hear Batista questioning why he invited Maven in the first place. Batista didn’t think that was great idea and Hunter didn’t think Batista thinking was a great idea. He put this guy so far down, that I can’t see Batista staying with Hunter too much longer. Batista in the ring is a monster but now we are seeing a very different side of him, one with feelings and one where he’s had it with Triple H. I like Batista so much that I for one can’t get over how much he’s changed and become so important to Raw. I have to be honest with you and tell you I paid very little attention to Simon Dean and his insults and Rosey coming out. The fact that it was Rosey out there really killed it for me. But I did watch and listen to Jericho and Benoit try to reason with Maven. Again another very good segment with all three of these guys.
I’ll keep this short I did not like the Muhammad Hassan vignette at all. Not that I have during these past weeks but last night with Hassan getting more into the face of the fans and calling for a revolt against Americans that have treated the family badly since 911 did it for me. Vince has taken this in the wrong direction. We have enough going on without Vince trying to incite more trouble. This really pissed me off, and I see me turning next week’s vignette off, I don’t find this entertaining at all. But thankfully the main event with Maven going for the gold was off the page. No way did I expect Maven to beat Hunter. Oh yeah Maven turned down the Evolution offer, the title meant a lot more to him that Hunter’s promises. Flair and Batista were there for Hunter so Benoit and Jericho came out for Maven. And things really took off. The more this match went on the better it got. After Batista and Flair got thrown out for interference, it was Benoit and Jericho that did to Hunter what Evolution always does to Hunter’s opponents. Both Chris’s were able to take Hunter out with different moves when the ref wasn’t watching. This was outstanding. Benoit was as serious and intense and he could be, while Jericho seemed to be
having so much fun trying to help Maven win. And the more that Benoit and Jericho helped the more I thought hey maybe Maven was going to win. Randy also came out to see what he could do. I’m telling you this was like watching wrestling when I started six years ago. The excitement was off the charts. And JR called on great match.
It took Edge, the return of Batista, Flair and then finally Snitzky whom took Maven out which helped give Hunter the win. But until that last second Hunter’s victory was not a done deal. I was getting so into this and so nervous that I wanted it to go on and on. Yeah two great nights of shows and I’m wondering if Smackdown can make it unanimous. We know John Cena vs. Carlito is scheduled, but with CCC hurt and due for surgery I see his title being stripped from him since he won’t show up, at least I don’t think he’ll be there. I read Cena will leave and go back to making his movie in Australia after Thursday’s show. I do plan to watch Impact and I’m hoping it’s greatly improved from what I saw last Friday.
Email lindrobin3@yahoo.com
