So we have 5 more days until Wrestlemania. Raw put on a much better show than last week. The atmosphere was perfect for the last Raw before Wrestlemania, a strong opening segment along with a match that followed it, a super crowd and finally someone didn’t cower from his opposition. So all in all a good Raw. I’ll start with the things that didn’t do much for me and then go right to the strong parts of the show.
Granted the matches last night were not exactly matches that you could to sink your teeth into. For instance, I was really looking forward to Shawn Michaels vs. Hassan. I figured this would come off extremely well, but it didn’t. It had its moments and really those moments all belonged to Shawn. I say that because one Hassan had control the match totally slowed down, and that slow down lasted way too long. There were too many holds as far as I’m concerned, once Shawn got back in there and started going at Hassan the tempo picked up. I was disappointed in this one, I didn’t hate it but I guess my expectations were way too high as far as the match went. I was extremely happy, but not surprised by Kurt Angle’s run in. My thinking is that if Hassan is to have a match with Hulk Hogan on Sunday, there was no way Shawn would be the first guy to pin Hassan, that job would go to Hogan. So I knew that Kurt would come out and go after Shawn. Watching Kurt and HBK go at it definitely worked for me and got me more into their match on Sunday. I also expect Shawn to show up on Smackdown to really seal things.
And the only other part that I wasn’t into was, the William Regal/Tajiri vs. Maven/Simon Dean vs. La Resistance for the Tag Team Titles. While it wasn’t a terrible match, it was a match that seemed to be there just because the time allowed for it. This match kept the Fort Worth, Texas crowd fairly quiet and I didn’t blame them for a second. While watching this it again showed me how weak the tag team division in WWE is, and I guess WWE knows that too since this match was put on Raw and not on the Wrestlemania card. So I guess better on Raw than on a major pay per view show. These two matches really were the only negatives on the show; the rest was all good, in fact very good.
Let me start with The Highlight Reel and its host Chris Jericho. This segment definitely got things going when Y2J brought out Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin. It was Jericho first that bragged about being the first ever Undisputed Champion, and then Benoit and Benjamin went on about how important winning the Money In the Bank Ladder Match was. All three will be putting their friendship aside for the win. While this is going on Captain Charisma and Tomko come out, and naturally Christian plans on winning the match and the right to have a World title match. That’s when Benoit, Benjamin and Jericho all agreed that either Hunter or Batista would beat Christian. The three gave it to him and he gave it right back by bragging just how wonderful he is. So far all of this is really playing out well, and it continues when Edge makes his way out. I was so glad that Edge just came out walked right to the ring and didn’t do his usual entrance by going to the each side of the ramp to pump up the fans. As a heel that’s what Edge needs to stop, and at least last night he did. He walked into that ring giving it to Benoit who a few minutes earlier had mentioned that he just about broke his neck during a ladder match. Edge who suffered a severe neck injury wasn’t interested in Benoit’s neck problems, or the fact that Jericho was the first undisputed champion, or that Shelton Benjamin now has IC gold. No, Edge plans to win, and then all hell breaks loose and the heels and the faces go at each other.
We come back from commercial and while we were gone Eric Bischoff just made a 6 man tag team match with Benoit/Benjamin and Jericho vs. Tomko/Christian and Edge. I found this odd since Kane is the 6th man of the ladder match, yet he wasn’t involved in any of this at least not yet he wasn’t. This match was without a doubt the match of the night. Then again there wasn’t much competition, but it was awesome. This baby lasted for a while and that’s just what you wanted when these guys worked like they did. Even though Tomko can’t compare to the others in the ring, because of them he came off looking okay. Benoit the man that got a few hard ladder shots the last several weeks got something he didn’t expect to get. As he was on the top rope, Tomko got up there to interfere and Benoit gave Tomko a nice head butt, so nice that it busted Chris above the eye and the blood just flowed. By the way if you go to WWE.com you can see Chris get the eye stitched up, anyway he was really bleeding but the match went on and what was so neat was toward the end when things fell apart just about for all the guys. Edge accidentally speared Tomko, Benjamin accidentally kicked Benoit, and then Christian purposely gave Edge the un-prettier for spearing Tomko. This was so great to watch because as this is all going on the fans are going nuts. The match finally ended with Tomko tapping out to the Walls of Jericho. Just an excellent match. Remember I said Kane didn’t appear at all during this? He did show up grabbing a ladder and with the exception of Benoit already down, Kane took all the other guys out with that ladder, and then climbed to the top and his pyro went off. That was WWE’s way of saying that was Kane’s victory, because it’s not happening Sunday. Truthfully while watching Kane take out his opponents was entertaining this is another week of not knowing what to do with this man. Other than that a very good match, it totally rocked the show.
Batista and Eric had another one of those “Was that another insult from Batista to Me” moments. Eric was in the locker room giving Batista the rules of his face off with Hunter. NO PHYSICALITY, simple as that. But before Eric left, Bisch wanted to know if Batista really meant that Eric was like a used car salesman. I guess Eric felt really bad about that remark, but he felt even worse when Dave said he did mean it. But then Batista had a little more to say to Eric. He told Eric he reminded him of an actor in Pulp Fiction. Eric loved that one, he thought maybe Dave meant Travolta, but it wasn’t the Travolta character it was the GIMP. This was another funny little segment with Dave getting the upper hand on an unexpected Bischoff.
Another short segment but one that came off well was the Arm Wrestling contest with Trish vs. Christy. Trish totally shined while this was going on. The part I enjoyed was when the match was ready to go, Trish immediately backed away because she wasn’t ready. She needed to warm up, and what better way to warm up then by doing curls with her Women’s title. Trish looked like a true heel out there; she pulled it off really well. Once the match got going Christy beat her immediately. Trish demanded a rematch and again lost in seconds. This reminded me when Hunter lost to Scott Steiner a few years ago and couldn’t handle it. So it was a copy of that yet it still came off very fresh last night. I liked Trish taking her anger out and Lillian Garcia by pushing her down and then kicking Lita in her bad knee. Christy looked angry, Lita, pissed and Trish just walked away like a spoiled brat. Because this was short it worked.
Okay so Randy RKO’d Stacy last week because she “wasn’t” with him when he said that he would beat Taker. I didn’t need the explanation because I knew that when she thought about the questions for a few seconds last week and then said she knew Randy would win. Randy’s RKO of Stacy seemed to get him a lot of heat from the Fort Worth fans, and that I liked. I also liked, no loved the video with the Undertaker. While the lights went out and Taker’s music hit, WWE did it again by showing a super video countdown all of Taker’s wins at Wrestlemania. It started with 12 and ended with an O, for his next victim Randy Orton. This was so cool to see a quick glimpse of all of Taker’s victims, and this video helped make this a really good segment, and it also seemed to scare the hell of Orton, the thought of Taker coming to Raw and then the video seemed to be more than Randy could handle. After the break Randy was backstage and you hear this phony Randy, Randy, it’s none other than Kane. Kane is there to creep out Randy even more. Kane with his sick smile told Randy that Kane has lost twice to Taker at Wrestlemania but was lucky to escape with his soul. He also told Orton that he cannot beat what he doesn’t understand, and even though Randy looked a little shaken up he assured Kane that he will win, so Kane told Orton he has 6 days to prove it. And Kane just laughed his freaky laugh and left. I have to say the in ring segment with the video and all of this just got things going very well for this Taker/Orton match.
Eric hit Hunter’s locker room and gave him the same talk he gave Batista, only Hunter could care less. Hunter blamed Eric for EVERYTHING. For talking Batista into staying on Raw and for setting up the Face to Face meeting. Hunter informed Eric that the meeting would be anything but civil. No one is going to tell Hunter to behave, and that’s just about what came out of this, again a good segment and now it’s on to Batista and Hunter’s Face to Face Meeting.
With Ric Flair right next to him Hunter hit the ring first, and he sat down with his feet up like he owned the world. But it was when Batista came out that the cheers erupted. This man was so over last night that the fans reaction was fantastic. Now earlier in the evening, when Batista and Eric were talking Batista was wearing a suit, but Batista and Hunter were dressed to wrestle last night, they were taped up and had their wrestling gear on. Now see most of us know that they were in a dark match after the end of the show, but for those that don’t go on the Internet, I wonder if they found it weird that they would be dressed to wrestle for a face to face meeting. Okay I just had to throw that in. Hunter spoke first and called Batista an ungrateful piece of crap, and he went on and on about making Batista a something because before Hunter found him Batista was a nothing. Hunter got it all out and unlike last week when I couldn’t get into Hunter’s promo this appealed to me. Then it was Batisita’s turn, and he really pissed the hell out of Hunter. When he took the mic the first thing that came out of his mouth was, “Are You Talking To Me?” This was great, the fans loved it, I was laughing so hard, and Hunter was fuming. Then Batista thanked Hunter and Flair for what they did for him, but made more out of Ric by calling him a true legend. And finally a very calm Batista told Hunter he had two things to tell Hunter, one, that he will beat Hunter at Wrestlemania and take his title and 2. That Hunter is an asshole. The fans loved that so much that the old asshole chants started coming out. Finally instead of Hunter being a coward, he throws the table in anger. He gets face to face with Batista and then Triple H slapped Dave’s face, Dave smiled and came back with “thank you,” and it was on. A nice brawl, with both men getting in some good shots. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was that Hunter stood up to Batista instead of leaving immediately.
The show definitely ended on a positive note and because of last night’s show I can’t wait to see Wrestlemania. But wait first there’s the last Smackdown before Sunday’s show, and I’m more than sure that HBK is going to go after Kurt, and I’m more than sure that Randy is going to show up, and I can’t wait to see what Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero have planned, AND I can’t forget about John Cena and JBL. I’m sure JBL will do all he can to get Cena since Cena humiliated him last week. Wow I can’t wait to watch Smackdown and talk about it on Friday. Let me just end with this Tazz’s father passed away and Tazz will not be on the show this week. I want to send my condolences to Tazz and his family.
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