I want to thank so many of the Toronto fans that were in the arena last night. Their taunting of Shawn Michaels played out so beautifully. This time WWE was prepared. Raw definitely ROCKED. You had a hot crowd, some terrific matches and the next installment of the Batista/Hunter angle. This was one hot RAW!
As much as I hate the gimmick with Hassan and Daivari. Hassan as the guest on Jericho’s Highlight Reel probably did his best mic work so far. I can not get over how natural he is. And whether I agree with all he said or not, he got the fans going. All in this entire segment set the t one for a strong show. I had a feeling it was just a matter of time before Chris Jericho would be put into this storyline. And for the fans as well as Hassan it’s a smart move. I am looking forward to their matches. And if this is the next feud, I would like to see more wrestling and less talk from Hassan and Daivari. By the way I also want to say that Daivari gives his all each week and he is definitely an asset to Hassan.
Hunter must have had a sleepless week. He seemed to be awfully worried about what was going with Batista’s since Triple H was responsible for Dave’s loss last week against Randy. Of course Ric Flair did what he could to assure Hunter that Dave was fine, and that there were no problems as far as Batista was concerned. This was the start of some more build up during the show between Dave and Hunter. While Hunter seemed relieved that Batista was cool, once he found out that Ric just got a message from Dave and didn’t speak to him directly you could see that Triple H was starting to worry big time.
As you know La Resistance won the tag team titles Sunday at the house show. How could they not win it again? Who else is in line? There is no tag team division on Raw. And I’m at the point where I cannot stand the gimmick. I’m sick of the flag waving, just the whole thing. It’s time to break up Sylvan Grenier and Rob Conway and give each guy some new life. As far as their match with Maven against Rosey, Hurricane Helms and Shelton Benjamin? I couldn’t get into it at all. If you asked me what happened, I would not be able to tell you. Shelton deserves way better than being put in that match.
STONE COLD, STONE COLD, that’s my JR. imitation. Yep he’s back at least in movies. Tomorrow afternoon Stone Cold and Vince are going to announce that WWE and Austin have signed for a three movie deal. If you go to WWE.com you can read the details there. So does that mean no Austin for Wrestlemania? I would say with this deal I definitely expect him to be there. Tomorrow night on the Best Damn Sports Show Period, Austin and Vince will be on probably talking about the movie deal. So all you Austin fans you have something to look forward too. Now back to the show. Randy Orton came to the ring, and did his best promo in a very long time. As I’ve been saying in the last couple of weeks Orton has been less the funny man and more focused on what’s important, the World Title. Although right before he came out Stacy gave him a kiss telling him how happy she was that he won last week. Now me? I would keep the women away and just let him do what he did in the ring. And that’s talk about wanting that title and taking out Hunter. As I said this was the best he’s been in a while and it gave me hope that this Orton will continue. Hunter came out and the two interacted well. Hunter did his usual list of ALL the guys he has beaten and Randy stopped him. Randy reminded the Game that he’s been using that speech for six years. I especially loved it when Randy also said that when he was a member of Evolution he heard that speech every day and heard it everywhere Evolution went. The interaction between both men really came off well. And they will take this into the ring at The Royal Rumble for the World Title. Naturally the two kept trash talking one another and then Randy called out Hunter to the ring. Hunter thought about it and then Ric came from behind to attack Orton. Hunter then entered and Randy was able to take both men out. Hunter barely escaped a chair shot. After the break Triple H was backstage fuming. Space cadet Maria asked to interview him, and Hunter started screaming at her and I believe he called her a tramp. He was LIVID. I loved his “tough ass” attitude about finding Batista and letting him have it for not being there. Just when Hunter entered the locker room Dave was there, and Hunter immediately turned into a coward. He was so happy to see Dave. And Dave whom I sure sensed how nervous Hunter was, told Triple H that he was fine about what happened last week. All was cool. However he then dropped a bombshell on Hunter telling him that he needed to talk to Eric Bischoff.
This gets good. Hunter wanted to talk to Eric for Dave because he’s has stroke. But Dave had this one, and then Hunter wanted to know why he had to talk to Eric. During all of this Hunter was so wimpy, so worried about why Dave needed to see Eric. Batista’s reply was that he wanted to talk to him about the Royal Rumble and the World title. That’s was it for Hunter he is now more worried than before. This all leads up to their last confrontation for the night, which comes a little bit later and is by far the best segment between these two. It’s now time for Toronto’s favorite, Shawn Michaels. This week Shawn is taking the boos much better than last week’s Bret chants.
He’s cool, and all smiles. HBK wants to be in a qualifying match for the Rumble, but Eric tells HBK there’s no need for that he’s in. However, Eric makes a match between Shawn and Christian. Eric makes a comment that it’s always fun to wrestle north of the border and we all know what that means. That the fans get to let Shawn have it. He’s wrestling against a hometown favorite Christian.
This was one of the best matches of the night. Shawn and Christian and those fans were really on. For being out a few months, Michaels looked sharp out there. I enjoyed watching these two last year wrestle and last night was just as good.
While this match was going on Edge decided to show up and take it all in. I’m going to say this right now. Edge has come a long way since his return, and the chemistry is so fantastic between Edge and Shawn. It’s like Edge finally found a comfortable place for himself. So Edge was out there and even with Tomko aiding his buddy Christian HBK won. But he really lost because Edge got in there, speared Shawn and then put a sharpshooter on him. And then Edge started screaming “how does that feel Shawn?” Like Batista and Hunter this feud is coming off brilliantly. Now it’s Batista vs. Viscera. I guess the theme of this was no matter how large the opponent is, Batista the monster can handle him. And he did beat Viscera. This match was okay nothing to rave. However Ric and Hunter were viewing the match backstage and Hunter just stood there like he could care less about the outcome of the match. After the break, Flair was all smiles with Batista because of his victory. Hunter had to force a smile. Batista then notified both guys that he was offered a qualifying Rumble match next week. OH OH panic hit Hunter. Hunter nicely explained to Dave that it would be a bad idea, since the focus should be Orton. Then Hunter told Batista the best one yet.
It’s rather selfish of Dave to get into the Rumble. Because then Dave would want to win the Rumble and then the World title. And then Dave is just like Orton SELFISH. This was GOLD! Batista came back with a great response. He understood what Hunter was saying. Because no one likes a selfish, self centered egomaniac. And then Dave said he figured out what he would do with the Rumble. You think Hunter got that little message from Dave? Oh I think he did. The soon to be feud gets stronger and stronger each week. It’s a pleasure to watch it grow.
Now this next match would have been my main event. Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho did what we all thought they would. They gave us a pay per view match on free TV. I could not wait to see this and it was worth waiting for. As I said I would have closed the show with this not with the Kane/Snitzky match. This was wrestling at its best and what made me extremely happy was that Hassan did not interfere to take away from what these two did. It was a clean win and one hell of a match.
Trish did a great job giving it to the fans in the United States and Lita. She made some hysterical comments and I really enjoyed her promo. Her bad mouthing of Lita brought out Kane and then like Triple H she wasn’t so tough anymore. After chasing Trish back into the ring, Kane thought about choke slamming her. He put her down and then thought about it again. He grabbed her and gave her one nice choke slam. That’s for you Lita! After the paramedics took Trish out the No Holds Barred match between him and Snitzky took place. This was a typical match. And again Sniztky just doesn’t do it for me. The only cool part was at the end when Kane on top of the ramp grabbed Gene and choke slammed him off the ramp onto tables. Let the Holy Shit chants begin. That made the match. As both men were down and out, JR did a nice job selling the seriousness of this. He came off very upset very worried and kept repeating how bad this was because neither man was moving. The last time he said that, Gene turned his head toward Kane and that’s the end. I was laughing so hard, just a few seconds more and JR would have been right. The match was okay but definitely not a main event match.
Raw was alive and I cannot wait until next week, when it’s the last Raw before the Royal Rumble and Ric Flair vs. Randy Orton takes place. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a can’t miss show, at least I hope so. Okay it’s on to Smackdown and I would love to see less of Joy and Amy and more focus on the guys and the Royal Rumble. I am planning to do a column on Friday, However Friday afternoon I’m having a root canal done. So depending how the evening goes I will see about the column. Hopefully I will be fine. And thank you all for responding to my questions on Sunday, I have enjoyed all of your thoughts so much.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
