Wow did I like Raw last night. The Birmingham crowd was outstanding, as was the whole show. With only one weak segment, the last Raw before Backlash did a super job of hyping Sunday’s show. Raw is two for two when it comes to taping in England. I hope that trend will continue.
Dave Batista was definitely one of Raw’s top stars last night. I was very pleased by the way he opened the show up. He was cool, calm and self confident, which made him look like a strong World Champion. Batista was definitely effective as he put Hunter down, what a nice change of pace that was. Batista had some great comments when Hunter came out, like informing Hunter is was wondering when he would come out, and by cutting Hunter off when he tried to speak. Even better was when Batista had the show the footage again of JR pinning Hunter. Batista enjoyed it so much that he had it shown again. Or how appealing was it, when Batista put Hunter in his place by jokingly declaring that since JR beat Hunter last week that would make JR the number one contender at Backlash, not Hunter? Batista pushed all the right buttons, and watching Hunter fume was a total treat. Yeah Batista was definitely on his game last night, and his interaction with Hunter was the best he’s done in a while. Through out the show, we saw vignettes with Viscera and Trish on their “date.” Viscera looked mighty sharp all dressed up and he did a nice job trying to woo Trish, but it was Trish that really had me laughing. Trish was outstanding playing off against Vis. The skits were all done very well, and they definitely added to the show.
It was Chris Jericho vs. Sylvan Grenier for the first match of the night. Why Grenier? I have no idea. This wasn’t the greatest match ever, but it was decent, decent enough to hold my interest. Jericho got the win and also got doubled team and attacked by Grenier and Rob Conway. This was the perfect way to bring Shelton Benjamin out. Shelton came to Jericho’s rescue. Shelton had no trouble taking out La Resistance. After all Shelton’s goal was to help Jericho. It was too bad Jericho wasn’t receptive to Shelton. Chris shoved Shelton and Benjamin came right back with a T-Bone and ended with the famous question, “who’s your bitch now?” So I would say these two guys are going to make it pretty exciting this Sunday, I’m looking forward to watching them in action. If Batista was one of the stars last night guess who the other star was? Oh yes Captain Charisma. Christian was THE man last night.
My God watching cocky Christian giving it to Ric Flair was fantastic. When Flair came in and told Christian that this was all about Hunter. That they needed to take out Batista for Hunter, Christian came right back with maybe Hunter should go to Smackdown and he can try to beat Michael Cole. Oh that was it for me; I was laughing so hard, what a great line, what a great night for Christian. Tomko then escorted Ric out and there was more to come with Christian. Christian started off by insulting the British fans, like giving them compliments for their dental hygiene. He then came up with this great line. He can not only beat Batista but if he should go to Smackdown he will also beat the Ali G rip off, John Cena. Oh another great line from the CLB. All of this was going so well, however there was one thing that I didn’t get and that was that all of a sudden Kane came out.
Kane came out, Christian escaped and Tomko got the old choke-slam. See I had a problem with this since right now it’s Kane vs. Viscera at Backlash so why in the hell did Kane show up during this segment. I guess it was to give the Birmingham crowd a glimpse of the Big Red Monster, yeah that sounds good. There was a worthless but short segment with Maria doing a horrible job interviewing Lita backstage. And Lita not exactly shining on the mic when talking about when her “husband” Kane defeats Viscera Trish will get what she deserves. Okay now back to Christian, Tomko is out and now Christian is a panic, he desperately goes to the Evolution locker room basically begging for Flair and Hunter to help him during his match against Batista. Flair was a riot during this. He would not let Christian in and then abruptly tells Christian to look behind him that was just to get Christian nervous. Again just a very funny segment. So Flair goes inside and Christian is left to wait. It’s Hunter that emerges and Hunter brings up the Michael Cole dig. Naturally Christian tells him it was a joke, Hunter then tells him he is willing to do business. Christian is then allowed to come in but not easily. Hunter didn’t budge for Christian, Christian had to squeeze by Hunter to get into their locker room, Michael Cole vs. Hunter, oh I’m still laughing. Chris Master’s was next and for me this segment was worst than last week’s so let me go on. I really liked the Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan backstage interview with Gene Okerland. First I found Coach very funny as he did all he could to knock Shawn. He told Shawn that there was a pool to see whose ego would get in the way, Shawn or Hogan’s. This was good, once Hogan came in he brought Gene Okerland with him and Coach was out. I felt bad for the fans they didn’t get to see Shawn and Hogan in person but this was a dynamite segment.
I really was happy for William Regal. The little party they threw him in the ring to celebrate the upcoming release of his new book was a nice touch. It was done not only for Regal but for his British fans. And having Hassan and Daivari come out and bring the mood down definitely worked for me. I have started to really enjoy Hassan appearances, yeah you read that right. His moaning and complaining is starting to appeal to me. And the match with Daivari/Hassan vs. Regal and Tajiri was good. Edge vs. Val Venis was next. Now again I was kind of puzzled that Val was in this one. This was another decent match and one filled with those Matt Hardy chants. The crowd was taking over where the MSG crowd left off last week. The thing that I liked about this was Chris Benoit coming out and giving Edge a few German Suplexes that was my highlight of this whole match. And now to the main event. With Hunter now the problem solver for Christian, Coach as the ref, and Ric Flair the time keeper what chance did Batista have?
Let me tell you I found this to be one of the best matches Batista has been in. He worked harder than I’ve seen him work in a while.
I knew that Christian didn’t stand a chance, but he still looked extremely good against Batista. I really liked this match and it made me feel good seeing Batista work a match that lasted more than 2 minutes. Something else that made me feel good was after the match HHH took out Batista and laid the Pedigree on him. That pedigree was WWE’s way of saying that Hunter is not getting that title back on Sunday. That works for me.
A really fun Raw and now it’s on to Smackdown which will also be taped in Birmingham, England. You know that I can’t wait for Carlito’s Cabana, and I’m sure Kurt Angle will be quite entertaining. I read that John Cena’s new video will be previewed so I’m sure Smackdown will be just as entertaining as Raw, or maybe even more entertaining.
Email lindarboin3@yahoo.com
