All of the sudden the creative team on Raw is doing something so right. And because of this there’s a certain angle that is getting better and more exciting week after week. And that angle along with a few other things made Raw worth watching. Maybe because New Years Revolution was so bad Vince and his staff worked extra hard to deliver a really good show. Whatever the reason Raw came through.
Let’s face it I don’t think of any of us were surprised when the show opened with the new World Champion, Triple H. I don’t know how many of you notice but there are many times when they have Hunter say things in his promo directed at some of the negativity that is said about him on the net. And that continued Monday night, when Hunter immediately told the fans they could think it was politics or favoritism that put that belt on him. I love when he make those little remarks. Hunter was “on” as he boasted about beating five of the best the night before in the Elimination chamber. And Ric Flair was right there to back up every word coming out of Hunter’s mouth. Hunter then introduced Batista. He gave Batista one hell of an introduction, by really putting him over as the hottest things in the business. Batista came out all smiles and man is this guy is so over with the crowd. Once in the ring the Evolution members were having a love-fest. That ended as soon as Randy Orton came out. Again Randy has stopped being overly cute, and overly funny, he’s much more focused and much more serious. Things heated up and really got interesting after Randy informed Batista that Hunter isn’t Mr. Wonderful. This was something I was waiting for.
Randy had video from the pay per view showing Batista getting pinned by Randy. Hunter watched, instead of breaking it up. In this segment you see Batista and Hunter make some terrific facial expressions. You see Hunter mouthing to Orton to shut his mouth. And Batista’s smile fades and he shows a confused look. The more Randy tries to get Batista to believe that it’s just a matter of time before Evolution dumps him the more Batista’s face starts to show anger. Randy shows the video and sure enough there’s Randy and Batista going at it and Hunter is leaning on the ropes. Once Randy gets ready for the pin, you see Hunter stand and as the ref is counting Hunter immediately sits down. Hunter tells Randy that that’s his view of what happened. He tells Batista that he was in that match for 45 minutes, and that he lost so much blood that his knees buckled on him. Hunter was in a weaken condition. Randy then questions that and shows the part where Hunter has Batista hold Hunter up on his shoulders and Hunter and Ric are doing the thumbs up routine with Hunter looking anything but weak. Watching Hunter squirm with Dave right next to him is extremely entertaining. Randy then demands a rematch and that brings Eric Bischoff out.
Eric says based on Randy’s performance Sunday night he deserved a title shot. Immediately the not so tough Hunter reminded Bisch that Randy made a deal with Hunter that as long as he’s the champion there’s no title match for Randy. Eric quickly changed all of that. Since Hunter lost the belt and just got it back that deal is DEAD! So Eric made a number one contender match. With Dave vs. Randy. As the camera leaves you see Hunter put his hand on Dave’s shoulder, it doesn’t stay there long because Dave gives Hunter a look and Hunter knows that he better watch it with him. This was a really super way to open the show and as I said the creative team has done such a great job keeping things between Batista and Hunter so interesting that the majority of the fans can’t wait for the next installment.
You remember at New Years Revolution, Maven and Shelton didn’t put on a match? How could any of us forget? Well the match took place on Raw. It was a Royal Rumble qualifying match. Shelton won, but what I noticed in this, was that Maven and Shelton did one nice job. I’m watching and wondering why the hell this could not have taken place the night before. Granted the match was short but it definitely had possibilities. And what bothers me is that Maven again got buried. Why not have Shelton win against someone else, put Maven with someone else and give him a victory and have both in the Royal Rumble and let the heat continue? As I said this match was good it was the booking that left me puzzled. Hassan and Daivari were next and while I was thrilled that Jerry Lawler didn’t have a rematch with Hassan, I didn’t see anything in the match with Hassan against Hurricane Helms. Don’t get me wrong it was an improvement from the dud match the night before but this match again was so short that I am still unable to see just what Hassan brings to the ring. I think way too much time is being spent giving Hassan mic time. Believe me we all get it that he’s anti American, just let the guy wrestle a full match.
The hot angle continued when Hunter and a moment with Batista. Hunter would consider it an honor to have Batista take him on for the title. He told Batista he would support him against Orton, and finally Hunter told Batista how much he deserved a title match. That’s all Dave needed to hear, let the mind games begin. Once Batista heard Hunter say he deserved it, Dave asked if he meant it. Hunter naturally said yes and Dave came back with a smile and said “eventually we all get what we deserve.” I think that remark put a little fear into Triple H. The next Royal Rumble qualifying match was Edge vs. Rhyno. You knew Rhyno wouldn’t win this one. Again another speedy match but I really liked watching both men. This could have gone on longer and I think the fans would have been on the edge of their seats. So Edge won and called out Shawn Michaels. I was waiting for this all night. Edge was livid over Shawn giving him Sweet Chin Music the night before which took him out of the Elimination chamber match. Shawn came out and things really got going. Shawn was awesome telling Edge how pathetic he is thinking the world owes him something. Shawn said that he traveled down that same road. He tried to steer Edge in the right direction and as he’s talking, a few fans in front start a You Screwed Bret chant, HBK seemed a little pissed off, wait a lot pissed off and tells Edge there are some Canadians in the crowd. Edge immediately says he doesn’t care about the fans. Then Shawn pops with, why don’t you Canadians stop moving to Florida and he told them to stop taking up his television time. All of this did take some energy out of what was being said by Shawn. But Shawn was able to continue and tell Edge to win the Rumble and earn that title at Wrestlemania. Edge then said he did need to look toward the future and slap some sense into him. But he first has other ideas, and he slapped Michaels. And they start brawling and this starts the ring and continues outside. I totally liked this segment. I have been waiting for Shawn to return and start up with Edge. This is going to be a strong feud, a feud which will give Edge a chance to show what he has against the Show-Stopper.
Here’s where things leave me sour. And you want to know something? I knew Kane would be a part of this. Simon Dean comes out doing the same crap and trying to plug his products. Now I could see Chris Jericho come out and make a fool out of him and then have a decent match. But as I said I had this bad feeling that Kane would put Dean in his place and sure enough the man that came off so well the night before was now thrown into this segment. Talk about taking Kane’s momentum being taken away. Kane tasted some of Dean’s vitamins and chewed them and then got a very angry look on his face because they tasted so bad. He then made Dean eat them and then Kane and Dean start to wrestle. Soon after Snitzky came out and went after Kane and hit him with a chair and then a whipped him with Dean’s belt. All of this caused blood to pour out of Kane’s mouth. So the man that came off so well the night before against Snitzky is now made to look like crap again. I hated this segment SO MUCH.
There’s another good and humorous backstage segment with Ric Flair telling Hunter that Batista doesn’t feel that The Game is really behind him. Hunter can’t understand that. Flair then tells Hunter that Batista needs to be motivated. So brilliant Hunter comes up with, tell Dave that he hasn’t done the job against Orton. Ric questions that kind of motivation and Hunter assures Ric the more negative you are with Dave the more motivated he is. There’s more to come with these two but the next match kind of surprised me. It was Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho vs. Tomko and Christian. Why surprised? I didn’t get the teaming up of both Chris’s. But I don’t have to tell you what a great job they did. This was one of the better matches of the night. I will say Tomko seems to need work in the ring but teamed up with Christian definitely makes him look better in there. Benoit and Jericho won and they it they worked their asses off. That’s what made this so good.
So was Flair able to motivate Batista? NO! Ric runs in and tells Hunter that motivating Dave by telling him his record against Orton stinks didn’t do it. Batista still wonders if Ric and Hunter are supporting him. Hunter immediately said of course they support him and they are a team and he would prove his support during the match. As you can see things are just flowing so well here and I think we all knew that Hunter’s support would cost Batista the match. I could not wait to watch everything fall apart for Batista thanks to Hunter, but before the match we had Christy and Maria in a pillow fight with Candace as the ref. Now on to the main event. Randy vs. Dave and this was done extremely well. If I didn’t know better I would say that the Fort Lauderdale crowd was in Batista’s pocket, I heard the chants at the beginning of the show and during this match. Batista and Randy looked very good out there I truly loved this match. While all of this is going on you have Hunter and Ric sitting outside of the ring cheering their boy Dave on. As things were coming to an end Ric and Hunter started playing a bigger part in the match. When it looked like Dave needed his buddy’s help everything fell apart. While Ric was trying his hardest to keep the ref out of view, Hunter came to the ring with a chair hoping that Dave would grab it. Dave kept insisting it wasn’t needed but Hunter kept telling Dave to use it. Dave became so focused on getting Hunter off the apron that Randy was able to knock Dave into the chair which knocked Triple H down, and when Dave fell back Randy pinned him.
Oh was Dave LIVID, and oh was Hunter SCARED. Batista gave Hunter such dirty looks that I cannot wait to see how things progress next week.
As I said I Raw worked for me, with just a few things that weren’t necessary. Okay if you go to Matt Hardy’s website, he has something about Lita and her surgery that is scheduled for tomorrow. It’s really sad that she damaged her knee so badly. I read on one site that she could be out 8 months. I feel very bad for her, and my thoughts and prayers are with her from surgery to recuperation. There’s no new news on Eugene’s injury except that surgery is needed. And it doesn’t stop there; Rob Van Dam also may need surgery on his knee. I read that he was going in for an MRI. I hate to report things like this. Now it’s on to Smackdown and Impact. I haven’t watched Impact in a long time. I’m hoping I can catch it this Friday. I will be back with my Smackdown thoughts and hopefully my Impact thoughts on Friday.
Email lindarobin@yahoo.com
