Raw had it all last night three super matches, a great opening segment, a title change, a crowd that came alive at all the right times with strong chants, AND most importantly a Limbo contest. Well maybe the limbo contest was a little lame but the show was fun and extremely entertaining.
I really thought that Hunter would get that belt back last night, because as Vince said at the beginning of the show it seemed to be a tie between Chris Benoit and Edge, so I figured a tie would as Vince again said cancel things out and Hunter would be champion again. BUT, when Hunter came out so cool and calm and interrupted Vince, I knew that Hunter wasn’t getting the title back. This segment with Vince and Hunter was a strong one and I loved watching the arrogant Triple H’s face go from a relaxed smiley face to one that looked like he could kill when Vince announced that as of now the title was vacant. It would be up to Eric Bischoff next week to decide who the champion is. I was waiting for Hunter to attack Vince as Vince left the ring, but instead the camera focused on one angry Hunter. I think next week Eric will make a rematch maybe adding Randy to the group at the next pay per view in Puerto Rico, January 9th. That’s my guess. But as I said a very good opening with not only Vince and Hunter, but it was Chris Jericho’s show and he was first out to set the tone for the rest of the night. After all he’s the party guy.
After the break we see Hunter going nuts over Vince’s announcement about the title. He’s backstage having one of his tantrums. The face to be Batista is calm and he tries to calm Hunter down, which just pisses off Hunter even more. Again great interaction between Hunter and Batista. After Hunter screams at Dave for not doing more last week, Dave is the one that goes nuts, and gives it right back to Triple H. He yells that he was the one that pulled Hunter out of the Crippler Crossface. Otherwise Benoit would have one. It was so cool watching Batista really give it to Hunter. After Batista said what he had to Hunter was speechless. Hunter and Batista have that chemistry at least outside the ring that will definitely make for a hot feud in the very near future.
Another guy that wasn’t in the best frame of mind was Christian. In the locker room he found a Captain Charisma costume. It seems like Jericho mind you with fun in mind had the costume made for Christian. If Christian refused to wear it than there would be no IC title match for him. I enjoyed Jericho putting Christian in his place for a change and making a fool out of him, this definitely worked for me. Okay we all so how pissed Hunter was about the title problem, but Chris Benoit didn’t seem as hot about it. He came in to talk to Jericho and even though he was mildly ticked off, once Jericho told him that they would be facing Batista and Hunter in a tag team match a smile appeared on Benoit’s face. I guess I would have liked to have seen a little more anger with Benoit didn’t make any sense to me that he would take things as well as he did. Also I thought Hunter would go after Randy since it was Randy that took him out last week. But there was no interaction at all; Randy should have been the focus of Hunter. But it seems like Randy has another guy that’s blaming him for last week’s match, and I’ll get to that in a little bit.
Maven vs. Eugene was the first match of the show. And it was everything you would expect from the newly turned heel, Maven. He started the match with Eugene as a guy that forgot about Eugene throwing him over the ropes causing Maven to lose in the Battle Royal. Maven shook William Regal’s hand as if to say hey I’m sorry for my actions last week. The match started out as a typical one with Maven on his best behavior. But after a few minutes Maven went into action. He fell down and made the ref believe that Regal tripped him. That little white lie caused Regal to be ejected from the area by the ref and now Maven was free to do what he wanted to Eugene. So naturally Maven went on a rampage by going after Eugene’s knee and leg. He refused to stop, which gave Eugene the victory on a DQ. Regal immediately came out to help Eugene but Maven clocked him with the belt. Another nice segment just giving Maven more to do to make his heel stature stick.
Since it was party time the diva’s came out to join Y2J for a limbo contest. While this was all kind of worthless, unlike last week when Randy’s lingerie match went on and on this contest was a lot quicker and it really didn’t hurt the show or bug me at all. Here’s where you are going to wonder WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HER? Now most of you know Jericho is one of MY favorites, but when he started singing last night after the Limbo contest, I was a little surprised how bad he sounded. So when Hassan and Daivari cut in and stopped the music I can’t say I was too upset. I know Jericho’s group Fozzy has a good sound it just didn’t work last night. So the two Arab American’s stopped the party and announced that they will be making their debut next week. I want to see Hassan wrestle and I really want to see the opponent for Hassan. I’m wondering if Jericho will be that guy since he interrupted his performance last night.
The worst part of the show at least for me was, Simon Dean vs. Hurricane Helms. Now I’m not saying it was horrible or total crap. I know what this guy can do and believe me with Helms we could see one terrific match. But their match last night was just a filler as far as I was concerned. I mentioned that I was waiting for Hunter to “kill” Randy but it was Edge that wants to take out Orton. Randy was being interviewed by Coach and pleased as he could be about the vacant title because now he can have a chance to go for it. Then Randy out of the blue did a sub par impersonation of the Rock, by insulting Coach. I also noticed that when Edge and Randy were trash talking each other in the ring, which by the way was good, Randy had a few actions that reminded me of the Rock right away. It seems like Orton is kind of lost in the shuffle. Last week was a horrible night for him and last night just a few little things he did Rock style kind of bothered me. Just know that this is all minor because as I said Edge and Randy really built up a nice feud last night, Randy just needs to cut the comedic insults and maybe watch some of his physical movements.
Shelton Benjamin and Captain Charisma again put on one FANTASTIC match. I have been reading house show results and every time these two go at it the matches get rave reviews. Last night’s was no exception. I am in awe of some of Shelton’s moves and Christian is like s new guy when he works with Benjamin. Everything is fresh and new. I truly loved this match and was thrilled Shelton won. Also before I forget I liked how throughout the show they built on Trish and Lita’s main event match by showing the history between Lita and Trish in the last few months. By doing that it made the women’s title match mean something. And what about The Kiss of Death, planting one on Trish’s lips? Now that worked for me, Lita showed some weirdness by doing that, it was extremely appropriate for their angle, and speaking of weird? How weird and freaky is Snitzky? When he got in Lita’s face he gave me the creeps. I figured he would show up during the match. Especially with since Kane wasn’t there. Okay how funny was it to watch Hunter leave a message on Bisch’s phone and have Ric Flair pimp Hunter’s latest projects. Flair was hysterical, and with Hunter repeating everything Ric was coming up with made for a very funny segment. Let’s see, Flair missed the title of Hunter’s book, Flair made Hunter the STAR of Blade instead of Wesley Snipes, and he plugged the raw magazine like Hunter has never made the cover before. This was a segment not to be taken seriously; it was done all in fun. And Batista definitely came through again when he heard Hunter ready to threaten Eric on the phone if he didn’t give him the belt back. Batista closed up the phone and using his common sense told Hunter that threatening Eric isn’t the way to get the belt back. Then Hunter questioned Dave by asking him if the didn’t think Hunter deserved the World Title, and Batista came up with a very neat answer, he said there was only one true champion and he left. Well let me tell you he meant himself, even though Flair told Hunter he was talking about Hunter. I hope to God Vince and his team doesn’t blow this upcoming feud because it has so many great possibilities, and the longer it’s played out the better it is.
Batista and Hunter vs. Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho was next and I thought this would be the main event. But that honor was saved for the women’s match. How hysterical and brilliant was it to have Lillian Garcia announce Hunter as the former World Champion, and have Hunter swear and run in the ring to attack Lillian? Not only did it start in the ring, but as Lillian ran to save herself Hunter went over the barrier to try to get her. See this is a small thing but it just builds on how unstable Triple H is and what losing the title means to him. The match was outstanding, but why wouldn’t it be you had four guys in there giving the fans a lot to watch and cheer about, plus you had Ric Flair do his thing and that just made the crowd chant his name more and more. It seemed like Hunter for most of the match was really getting it from Benoit and Jericho. It wasn’t until the end where he picked up some steam and where he no longer cared about winning. Taking Benoit and Jericho out with a chair was more important. As he did that the ref also got it. But before Jericho was hit, he managed to duck and Hunter accidentally slammed Batista with it. Okay the only two remaining on their feet were Hunter and Flair and believe me I was waiting for a very violent Triple H to take down Flair too. Flair immediately ran to help Batista, and Hunter kept apologizing to Dave but Dave was too out of it. You see Ric just staring at Hunter and Hunter finally just leaves. What a great way to end this match, with Evolution just falling apart, and more importantly their “leader” just totally losing all of his senses.
The main event with Trish defending her title against Lita was one of the best women’s matches in a long time. Lita came through and along with Trish deserved this spot. I’m sure most of you saw that horrible dive off the rope Lita took. Watching the top of her head hit the floor and seeing her stunned for a while made me hold my breath, but she made a wonderful recovery and gave her all after the incident. I figured Lita would win and it’s about time. Even though her in ring skills aren’t what they were it’s been a long time since she’s had the title and I have to say she was looking damn good out there last night. Raw definitely gets thumbs up from me and it was a nice four weeks with Maven, Benoit, Orton and Jericho running the show. Next week the Bisch is back and not only will he make a decision about the World Title situation, but Edge vs. Randy Orton is going to take place. So it should be a good show. By the way I have been checking and from what I just read Lita is fine. So that is very good news. Also it’s on the net that Chris Benoit was knocked out from Hunter’s chair shot, and needed some staples in the back of his head but he’s okay, and the ref, Jack Doan also was knocked out by the chair shot and had to be carried off the ring by other refs. It’s on to Impact and Smackdown. I want to thank all of you that sent me your recaps and thoughts on TNA’s Turning Point from the past Sunday. From all accounts it was a very good pay per view. I look forward to Impact since I haven’t watched it in a couple of weeks, and this is Smackdown’s last show before Armageddon. Again there’s not much I’m looking forward too, but just maybe I’ll be surprised by a good show this week.
Email lindarobin@yahoo.com
