I looked up the word perfection and found this, the quality or state of being perfect: as a: freedom from fault or defect. That describes last night’s Raw. I am still so hyped, and so thrilled by what I saw last night. There have been plenty of strong Raw’s but last night’s stole the show.
Raw was all about nostalgia, pay per view quality matches and a new Wrestlemania ad that blew the others away. I am so proud to be a wrestling fan, well I always am but so much more because Vince, and his staff showed that they still have it. They put on a show that I will never forget, and I think it’s going to be hard to top what they produced last night. And the Atlanta fans were totally awesome and they played a major part in this perfect Raw.
Right off the bat without a doubt in my mind Kurt Angle and Christy had THE best Wrestlemaina ad out of all of them. I just got done watching it again on WWE.com. This was by far the funniest one yet, and making Kurt look like a Billy Crystal clone is as funny as it gets. Christy and Kurt did a super job recreating the famous orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally. The writers got the humor back by having Christy fake being turned on by all the moves that Kurt plans to do at Wrestlemania. And adding Linda McMahon at the end in the role of the older woman taking all of Christy’s fake noises in was great. Showing this commercial on this edition of Raw was brilliant.
I never saw Jake the Snake on TV. Yes I saw him in Beyond the Mat, and I’ve read plenty about his not so great life style. And while he may not be the kind of role model you want your kids to idolize, he was used so well last night. When he came out I got chills, just knowing what this man brought to wrestling years ago made me want to see what he had up his sleeve. And bringing him out to give Randy Orton another legend to RKO was another great move. I found Jake’s interaction with Randy to be right on, and Randy finally getting back to the heel mode played against Jake beautifully. Yes it was Jericho’s Highlight Reel, but it was Randy and Jake the Snake’s segment, and it was an awesome segment. And for those of you that don’t feel that Randy has made that heel turn, I would bet you anything that when he shows up on Smackdown this week, you will see proof that he’s no longer a baby face. I have a feeling he’s going to do all he can to make Taker’s life miserable during the contract signing.
The first match had Kane taking on Tomko and Christian. This wasn’t bad in fact it definitely entertained me. Christian in this one showed what a little creep he is by bringing out a ladder to take care of Kane, however when Kane started to go toward Christian, Captain Charisma decided that would be the perfect time to leave and Kane took the ladder and Tomko was the one that got hit with it. This was a short match but again the ladder came into play and it all worked very well.
The Nature Boy was ON last night. In his first segment he did the old pep talk routine with Gene Snitzky, only with Snitzky it was more of a kiss ass routine. Ric knew just the right things to say, for instance what happened to Kane and Lita’s baby wasn’t Gene’s fault, and the more Flair played up to Snitkzy the more the big dumb guy was buying it. Flair got him ready for his match against Batista, with the hopes that Snitzky would totally put Dave out for Wrestlemania. As I said this was just the beginning of Ric at his best last night.
While Christy vs.Trish at first turned me off, with Lita added as Christy’s trainer it’s definitely making things more interesting. And then add William Regal and Tajiri to the mix like they did last night, it’s downright fun to watch. Regal and Tajiri I think are so in love with THE PLAYBOY Christy that they now have volunteered to help her train. Tajiri was giving her an idea about how to kick your opponent, and then it was up to William Regal to work with her, and didn’t you all just know the more Regal did some psychology on Christy, like she’s not ready to wrestle, the harder Christy’s kicks became. Christy’s last kick got Regal below the waste and naturally he sold it well. Regal is so good at comedy, you can’t help but laugh at him. If you watch Smackdown then you know that Marty Jannetty and Kurt Angle are going to have a match, so Angle can make Marty tap out and give Shawn an idea what’s in store for him in their match at Wrestlemania. But fans of The Rockers didn’t have to wait until Thursday to see Jannetty. He showed up in the locker-room to visit his former Rocker member, HBK. Shawn thought that Raw would be the perfect show for the Jannetty return, and to top it off Shawn came up with a Rocker reunion for one night only against La Resistance. First Jake The Snake Roberts and now a Rockers one night only reunion, all of this is just making raw a very hot show. But before the Rockers vs. La Resistance, Edge vs. Shelton Benjamin was next. This match didn’t exactly get started immediately; there was a little pre-match excitement courtesy of Edge. As Shelton walked down the ramp to the ring Edge came out of nowhere and started beating up on Benjamin. There was very little that wasn’t done to Shelton, he was choked, slammed into the steel stairs, basically just brutalized by a smiling Edge. Once both men got in the ring, Shelton only got in there because Edge threw him in, but once the bell rang the match was on, and it was a beaut. I thought from the looks of things Edge would destroy Shelton in seconds, but Benjamin made a strong comeback and this was one of the BEST matches of the night. Well Edge had the upper hand almost throughout but with Shelton not giving in and then a little appearance by Jericho, Edge came out the loser. Again the ladder showed up when Edge planed on using it against Benjamin, but Jericho decided to stop by, slap the ladder which in turn hit Edge and Benjamin got the pin and the victory. Benjamin and Edge looked outstanding during this match. This was truly a sensational match.
Now it’s The Rockers vs. La Resistance, and this was amazing to watch. I have Shawn’s DVD so I have seen the Rockers but it’s not the same as watching them live years ago. But I will tell you Shawn and Marty came off so well together last night, not knowing a thing about Jannetty he seemed to be genuinely happy to be there and that showed in his performance. This was a terrific match by all four men and it gave me goose-bumps watching this Rockers reunion last night. As you can see everything so far is perfect with Raw and that pattern is going to continue. Ric Flair had me laughing when he was talking to Triple H about it being one year since Hunter tapped out to Benoit at Wrestlemania. He reminded Hunter how humiliated he looked when Batista cracked his sledgehammer over his leg last week. Flair was hysterical during this as was Hunter’s frowns and Flair reminded him how Snitzky would take care of Batista and Hunter wouldn’t have to squeal or whine anymore. Flair was just trying to make Hunter feel good but it definitely wasn’t working for Hunter. It’s always nice to see someone get to Hunter mentally, and Ric did that perfectly last night.
I see WWE didn’t want to leave Maria out. Maria made a BIG mistake during her interview with Trish. She had to bring up the Twist of Fate that Trish got from Christy last week. That was it for Maria, Trish attacked Maria and granted it wasn’t an Oscar winning performance but she sold her misery pretty well, let’s put this way, I was cool with it and things are still on a high as far as Raw goes. Now Flair got a hold of Snitzky again pumping more thoughts into him about taking out Batista. While Flair is talking, Sniztky isn’t reacting and Flair turns around to see Batista standing there. Batista was smooth and I got a kick out of Batista’s “hi” to Gene. Batista his smiling his trademark smile as Ric is going nuts telling him that he’ll never beat Hunter, or have movie roles, and then he tells him Triple H is the franchise. And Batista simply came back with “the only thing he is going to take from Triple H is the title.” This is the Batista that I love, laid back, quiet, calm yet so self assured. Put him up against a very hyper Ric Flair and again you have a winning segment.
Chris Benoit vs. Hunter was my match of the night. I knew this would be like watching a pay per view match and I was right. I was a little surprised that Hunter won only because I saw Batista interfering and costing Hunter the win. Well that didn’t happen and Hunter won, which really makes sense since he’s heading into Wrestlemania you want to have your champion come in with a major win in his pocket. As I said an awesome match with Benoit and Hunter showing the fans that you don’t need to have high flying moves to keep you interested. These two gave us another match that would have worked so well on a pay per view, and we were lucky to be able to get this one free. Our two favorite misguided Arab Americans, Hassan and Daivari popped out to bitch a little more about not being given a match at Wrestlemania. Last week I goofed up by saying Hassan never lost a match what I meant to say is he never was pinned and that was his message last night. No one has pinned him in the ring and yet there doesn’t seem to be any room for him at Wrestlemania. This was a very short promo but Hassan and Daivairi did a nice job. Their goal is to make sure that none of us forget they are AROUND and each time Hassan comes out you just have that feeling that the Hogan vs. Hassan match for Wrestlemania will be made. Before the Snitzky/Baitsta match, Lita ran into Gene and Gene gave Lita a warning that after he’s done with Batista he’s going to finish things off with her. Okay interesting, so I’m figuring the Kane/Snitzky thing is far from over. And we find out that that’s exactly the case after the main event.
Now let me say that the main event was probably the weakest match of the night. Flair and Triple H were in Snitzky’s corner to help him get the job done. To say that I thought Batista and Snitzky ruled in the one would be a total overstatement, but for the short time that this match took place, it built things up. Again Batista showed that even with Snitzky, Flair and Hunter trying to take him down, they couldn’t. And it also showed that Kane has a heart, and ran out to aid Batista after being surrounded by Hunter, Snitzky and Flair all with chairs. Kane’s mission was to take down one of them that being Snitzky. So I believe the Kane/Lita marriage angle is still going on at least for another few weeks. Also Hunter named Batista’s opponent in the Pick Your Poison match for next week, and the honors go to Kane. I’m not sure about that match but I see Hunter, Flair and Snitzky involved in that one too. So it should be worth watching.
It’s so nice to talk about a show that meant a lot to me. I will never forget the nostalgia theme it brought a lot to the show. Everyone was a winner last night including the fans. So it’s on to Smackdown. After an amazing Raw I can’t wait to see Randy Orton playing a total heel role against Taker during the contract signing. Just how much damage if any will Kurt Angle do to Mary Jannetty? And will John Cena be punished for the F’U he gave Theodore Long last week? Bring on Smackdown I cannot wait.
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