Did you of have a feeling that after the WWE spoofed the NFL incident of last week that Raw was going to be a good show? While I thought last week’s show was better last night’s was still entertaining and my major complaint was about two characters that were booked so poorly after last week. Other than that it was a fun show and a different GM each week is proving to be a positive for the shows.
As I said how funny was the skit with Trish, Shelton and Vince McMahon last night? You had sexy Trish coming on to Shelton Benjamin not only in a towel but she was still wearing the face guard. And watching her comb her hair just like Nicollet Sheridan just had me laughing so hard. Shelton did a better job than Terrell Owens, he was way more natural, and Vince was outstanding. Didn’t he put the whole thing into perspective by showing just how ridiculous all the criticism during last week’s game was? This was a fun segment and it definitely got things going. Chris Benoit did a nice job setting up the show, and I want to apologize. In Sunday’s column I said he along with Lita, Trish and a few others wouldn’t be there they would be in the Middle East. Naturally after I posted my column I read that that wasn’t the case at all. Too be honest I’m not sure if the trip happened already or is happening this week, but again I’m sorry for the wrong info. But Benoit came off very well as last night’s GM. And setting up a cage match against Triple H was brilliant; after all it would be one on one with no outside interference. This was a match I couldn’t wait to see.
Here’s one of my problems with a character last night. Maven is stuck with Snitzky. So you know right off Maven isn’t going to win this match. Not after Snitzky severely injured Kane weeks ago. I can live with that but what I can’t live with is, last week Maven came so close in beating Hunter. Sure Jericho and Benoit were there for him but along with the crowd this was one terrific match and Maven came off looking pretty damn good. But last night Maven was nothing more than a jobber. It was all Snitzky, talk about killing Maven’s push; this just didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t care for this one at all. Okay call me naïve, of course I’m sure you can come up with more colorful names but Hunter lashing out at Batista last night made me feel like Batista and Evolution were DONE. Sure in the back of my mind I wasn’t buying it totally, yet the way Hunter talked down to Dave made me think that this might be the end of the big man’s membership in the group.
This is the Hunter that I love to watch. The more egotistical and mean he gets the better I like his character. Then you have a soft spoken Batista trying to reinforce his loyalty to Hunter but the more Hunter ranted and raved the more Batista gave it back to him. And then you have Flair trying calm things down and that’s what made all of this come together perfectly. During this Hunter bet Batista a hundred dollars that Batista couldn’t beat Jericho, since Batista was the one that hasn’t been able to come through for Hunter. I was so engrossed in this I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Before the Jericho match Stacey and Simon Dean had a little interaction in the ring. Stacy was going to give away the new ECW DVD, but Simon thought his exercise DVD was the one that she should be hyping. The funniest line Simon came up with was what ECW stood for, Eating Causes Weight Gain. Dean and Stacy got into and Simon was starting to get into Stacy’s face that’s when Hurricane Helms came to her rescue. I enjoyed Helms and Dean going at it much more than last week with Dean and Rosey. Simon Dean got the upper hand and started whipping Hurricane with weight belt, this then brought Rosey out and Simon left. Not a bad segment at least it was short and I would have no problem having a Simon Dean/Hurricane Helms feud.
Backstage we have two very attractive girls one being Melina Perez who is in OVW and the other Candace yes a former diva contestant talking about how Batista got into H’s face and it’s like they are totally impressed with Dave now for standing up to Hunter. Flair is then seen trying to calm Batista down by telling him Hunter is under a lot of pressure and he didn’t mean what he said, but Dave isn’t buying it. Again this is all coming off so well; Batista is showing just how convincing of an actor he can be. His match against Jericho was really good, too short but very good. Jericho won on a DQ when Batista refuse to stop a chokehold on him while Jericho was in the tree of woe position. Once the ref got Chris down, Batista took Jericho out with clothesline. This was all played out again perfectly showing that Batista was out of control from everything that went on prior to this match. Ah things really heat up when smug Hunter asks for his $100.00 for losing the match. That’s when both men started arguing back and forth and Hunter telling Batista that maybe he isn’t the guy for the group. Batista said screw you to Hunter and left. Hunter than got in Ric’s face and demanded he have a talk with Batista. Again a small part of me is saying this is all a set up but I’m still feeling like this is all going so well that Batista is going to knock the hell of Hunter before the night is over. Edge was interviewed by Todd Grisham. Todd wanted to know why he beat up Christian last week. Edge’s reply was that he was done with tag team matches that the world title was supposed to be his. He then went around backstage asking Maria, Christy and some guy if they thought he deserved a title shot and they all said NO! He then shoved the guy into a wall when Benoit got there and told Edge if he didn’t like the way things were going then Edge should do something about it. Edge left. This was another segment that I liked a lot. Edge has one thing in mind and that’s the world title and the fact that he hasn’t gotten a title shot just makes him more violent, and yeah I like that.
Another JR vs. Coach match? Well that’s what Chris Benoit wanted Coach to believe. Poor JR again not dressed for a match, but this time JR didn’t have to get in there. After Coach cut his hysterical heel promo on JR Benoit came on the titontron and cleared things up. JR stood for JUST RHYNO. And Rhyno ran out and took care of Coach ending things with the GORE. Again fun stuff, short enough where it didn’t take away from the show. And it’s always nice to see Rhyno kick some ass.
Okay problem two with a character. It’s Molly vs. Trish vs. Lita for the Women’s title. Molly and Trish are looking good but Lita is not. Last week at the Survivor Series Lita went berserk and beat the crap out of Trish. Last week on Raw Lita continued her rampage and slammed her fist into Trish’s broken nose. But last night Lita just wrestled and her wrestling wasn’t very good. Why the hell wouldn’t they have her just go crazy and do what she has been doing? It wasn’t until the match was over which Trish won that Lita then went a little weird and took Trish out. This again was the wrong way to handle Lita. I want to see a tough woman that will do anything to get what she wants. Having her just wrestle like before just doesn’t work. Now it’s time for more Flair and Batista. Flair again is trying to reason with Batista telling him that when Hunter steps down Batista is next in line. The more Flair talks the more he’s losing Batista. Flair then said don’t do anything you will regret and Batista popped with he wouldn’t regret anything. Again more fuel to add to the fire. And just what did Batista mean by no regrets? We would soon find out.
I was very impressed by the video they showed with Shelton Benjamin. Shelton came from violent surroundings, but he was able to get out and make something out of himself. It was a very strong segment and his match with William Regal and Eugene vs. Christian and La Resistance was good not great but definitely good. Shelton seems to have become a fan favorite, which makes me very happy. Well at least Muhammad Hassad isn’t calling for a revolution, no this time he will beat up anyone that doesn’t show him respect. But I was furious that this vignette was shown in an airport. Not only is this in bad taste but it really made me uncomfortable. I think enough already with these ads put Hassad in the ring. We all know what too many ads can do. I’m thinking of Sean O’Hare and Nathan Jones for starters. Let’s see him wrestle I think we all get where the character is coming from.
Okay my Batista is leaving Evolution feeling came to an end when Benoit was waiting in the cage for Hunter and Hunter was a no show. Backstage we see Batista leaving fast, Ric Flair is hysterical and Hunter is face down. Flair is going nuts that Hunter is almost dead he’s not moving. Some wrestlers come to the locker room looking at Hunter who isn’t moving and Benoit then comes in checking things out. Now I knew that this was Hunter’s way of getting out of the cage match. All the arguing between him and Batista was a set up. My problem with this was. Since Benoit was in charge why not tell Hunter you have 10 seconds to get up or I’m stripping you of the belt. But instead Benoit was made to believe that Hunter was attacked, that didn’t please me. And it didn’t please me to have Edge replacing Hunter in the cage match. It seemed like the Buffalo fans that were a pretty hot group weren’t happy with Edge in there either. The match was okay but nothing out of the ordinary; it was a complete disappointment for me not seeing Benoit vs. Hunter. During this match Batista is backstage watching it on the monitor. Wait isn’t he the guy we saw storm out after he “beat” up Hunter? That again was a clue that Batista and Hunter were not parting ways. Batista made his way to the ring demanding Hunter show his face. The crowd loved all of this; Batista is so over I loved hearing Batista chants. Hunter with the help of Flair walked down to the ring. Now these two are nose to nose. You have to figure if Hunter was really beaten up by Dave Hunter would have attacked him immediately. But instead they are nose to nose and then Hunter laughs and tells Batista well done. Flair laughs then they all laugh. And Hunter is in a DX mode making jokes and crediting Flair but giving Batista even more props with his academy award performance. Hunter paid off the guy that played the Dr. backstage and its one big party. That is until Randy Orton shows up. He’s running the show next week and it’s Randy vs. Hunter. Only Hunter refuses so instead of having Randy make Batista vs. Hunter which I think would have definitely been a smart move, it’s an over the top match with 20 guys vs. Flair, Hunter and Batista for the title. See I think that’s dumb. If you noticed with all the laughing before Orton came out Hunter still got in that Batista should have beaten Jericho. Batista didn’t look to happy with that remark. What a way to get things going with a Batista vs. Triple H match next week. But since that won’t take place and Randy’s the GM next week it will be interesting to see what Evolution will do to make sure of a win for Hunter. By the way Randy had a match on Heat against Tomko last night. You know having you major stars on Heat and Velocity is fine but Randy should have been on a lot more last night. With a few exceptions, I really liked the show a lot. It has been a great two weeks with the different GM’s and the trend should continue next week.
Okay there is no Impact this Friday it will be on a week from today instead. But Smack down will be on and I don’t know how many of you read about Bob Holly’s latest stunt, but I’ll try to shorten his latest antics. He has had a problem with Renee Dupree and at Sunday’s house show he slammed Dupree in the head with a chair. Dupree’s eye swelled something horrible and then Holly proceeded to kick and punch him. It was all a shoot and from what I’ve read really a scary thing to see. I think no matter how hated Renee is backstage, not only should Holly be released but charges should be filed against him. The guy is a loose cannon. I hope Vince realizes that his actions are totally unacceptable and Vince does the right thing. Finally with Thanksgiving Thursday, I won’t have a Smackdown column on Friday since we won’t be home. I might not be back until next Tuesday. So Happy Thanksgiving and for those that aren’t from the States have a great week and weekend.
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