Last week at this time I could not wait to talk about Raw, but I don’t exactly feel that way today. The show could not compare to last week’s masterpiece. Raw was a decent show, the Wilkes-Barre crowd was hot for most of the show, which wasn’t easy to do since there were a few segments that really were bland. So not the greatest Raw but a good one.
Hunter opened the show up, and yes he talked about how IMPORTANT he is to this business and how pissed he still was about not being in the World Title race. Now let me tell you there were three things that I truly enjoyed while Hunter was out there. First he came out stared down the hot crowd with their “you tapped out chants.” Second there were a few fans in the front row that were really laying it on thick by trash talking Hunter. This made him go face to face with a few and I loved it. These guys were not going to back off and Triple H played off of them so well. And the third thing was, Hunter came out dressed up, yet he looked like he had been through the mill. His Gold Rush loss against Benoit definitely took a toll on him. Not only was Hunter in the ring but the World Champion, Dave Batista came out and did all he could to get the best of Hunter. Batista made fun of Hunter tapping out to Benoit, and he told Hunter that maybe he wasn’t good enough to face Hunter. While Batista laughed and smiled, Hunter was getting angrier and angrier. Finally Hunter made this bold statement that he didn’t need to be there, he would leave and wait for them to beg him to come back. Hunter left, and then Batista stopped him and called him a sore loser. Batista told Hunter that he was in denial about losing to Batista twice. Hunter listened and left. I found the opener to be fun, Batista came off relaxed and Hunter as I said played off the crowd and Batista perfectly.
We come back from break and Hunter and Ric are outside and walking to a limo. Hunter is ready to split and demands that Ric come with. But Flair isn’t going anywhere he wants Hunter to stay and he will do all he can to talk to Bischoff about Hunter not being in the title race. Hunter got in the car and that was it. So I’m thinking, is Hunter gone for the night, or will he return and do all he can to get back into that title slot? I figured he was finished for the night, in fact maybe for a couple of weeks. Think about it, Hunter will not face Batista for a few weeks. So what better way to keep him out of the mix than by giving him a few weeks off. This way he’s away from Batista and he should return in time for the draft. I’m very pleased with this angle so far.
It was lovely hearing Daivari speak in fluent English last night. Okay seriously I thought he did a nice job on the mic trying to prove his loyalty to Hassan. Daivari made a challenge to any one in the back and this is when I was so afraid Chris Masters would show up. Hey did you all notice we were Masterlock free last night? I sure did. Jericho came out to accept the challenge and even though this was a very short match I liked it. I would have loved to have heard Jericho do some mic work but he did a nice job along with Daivari in the ring. Y2J won and then Hassan along with Daivair attacked Jericho. Shelton Benjamin came to Jericho’s rescue, it’s too bad knocked out Jericho wasn’t aware of Shelton taking care of business. This was kind of an odd segment to take place, but little did I know Hassan and Davari would show up later and take care of Shelton. I was extremely pleased with GM Eric Bischoff. He was in that heel mode of his; you know that character that loves to belittle members of his roster. For instance Christy. All she wanted to know from Eric was if the divas would be part of the upcoming draft. And Mr. Arrogant immediately answered everyone is eligible and then he got even more arrogant by telling poor innocent Christy that he hopes she goes to Smackdown because of the lack of respect she has shown him. I have no idea what Eric meant but I liked his character last night.
As he’s putting down Christy my favorite tag team La Resistance walks in. And they demand a tag team title match. God for bid that’s all I would have needed. Eric reminded them that they had their chance and lost. That’s when Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier started blaming each other for the loss. A little arguing took place. Does this mean we might finally see this tag team split? I sure hope so. I’m thinking one will be drafted to Smackdown while one remains on Raw. To end the arguing Bisch came up with a singles match for each guy, and like last weeks Gold Rush tournament Conway and Grenier would not know who their opponents would be. So a nice little spot with Eric being a jerk and the tease of the end of La Resistance. Ah Christian was on again last night. Captain Charisma came up with some of his best lines ever.
We see Ric Flair talking to Hunter on the cell phone still trying to bring him back to the show. Christian and Tomko show up and smart ass Christian starts with Flair. First he tells Flair that if he’s looking for someone to kiss up to 24/7 he can choose him. Okay and then the best line of all? He brings up Hunter leaving and then asks Flair who is going to spit water on themselves tonight? Listen this was great, just these few little lines again cemented how entertaining Christian is. Flair wasn’t as entertained as I was and challenged Christian to a match. The crowd totally seemed excited about this one. But before the match was to take place
It’s Sylvan Grenier with the love machine Viscera. Not much of a match here but after the match we got a lot of Viscera, nachos and Lillian Garcia. After Vis beat Sylvan, Viscera kept staring at Lillian.
He then went to a fan and took the fans nachos and walked over to Lillian. And then things got very creepy. After he did a few X-Rated moves he asked Lillian to announce the winner of the match again. And she did and he told her when she says his name it turns him on. Now mind you I’m not eating during any of this. He then asks is she wants some of his nachos and then he puts one in his mouth and brings her closer so she can take it out of his mouth. I’ll tell you the fans were getting a kick out of this and I was laughing even though it was kind of gross. Vis ended things by saying if Lillian liked his appetizers she’s would love the main course. I don’t know what to make of this guy, a face, a heel for just a STUD? But I will say this was kept short and I liked it.
It’s funny because the freakiness continued. Kane and his wife Lita had a moment in the locker room. First Lita walked in smiling and pleased that Viscera had a new victim. Then Kane got all weird and grabbed Lita and reminded her that they have been married 9 months, and at their wedding Lita hoped he would rot in hell. He wouldn’t let Lita answer. Then said how Trish is out and Lita liked that and then he declared he would be the World Champion. Lita seemed to really like the World Champion part. Kane said he always gets what he wants and Lita backed that up with SHE always gets what she wants. If Lita doesn’t turn on Kane to go with Edge next week I’m going to be totally surprised. I am just a little suspicious of Lita right now, the mood is right for her to turn on her “husband.” Kane vs. Chris Benoit was a damn good match. I remember last year when Kane had a title shot against World Champion Benoit they put on a good one. This was even better. I guess when you are in the ring with Benoit you are just about guaranteed to have one hell of a match. Benoit again killed himself out there and I was really into this from beginning to end. Kane beating Benoit was no surprise to me; I guess Kane can thank Lita for giving him a little help out of the ring. After Lita’s injured knee it the barricade Benoit went to her trying to assist her and Kane caught him off guard and hit him with a clothesline. Kane then threw Benoit back into the ring, and tried to choke-slam him. Benoit tried to put the crippler crossface on Kane but Kane was able to block it and Benoit got the choke-slam, and Kane got the victory. A really good match and I think my match of the night.
Ric Flair vs. Christian is next. Only Christian decided to send the Problem Solver Tyson Tomko. Yeah Christian stood on the ramp and told Flair that Flair has become a problem to him. Now as disappointed as I was about Christian out of there, I didn’t mind this. Flair was the face during all of this and he took care of Tomko in a matter of minutes. Okay maybe there was no point to a Tomko match but it’s obvious that Flair and Christian have a mini feud brewing. The only segment I really didn’t like was Stacy coming out and plugging her Stuff Magazine with Todd Grisham. I’m always glad to see Stacy, it’s just too bad WWE doesn’t make Stacy a manager and give her something major to do. Anyway it wasn’t Stacy that I didn’t care for it was the fact that Maven and Simon Dean came out and this time both men came off like cartoon characters. I didn’t like this at all. I understand it was to bring out Hurricane Helms and Rosey to help Stacy but the writing was really poor.
However, I really found the backstage segment with Coach and Bischoff really intriguing. Coach in what I found to be out of character was all thrilled and excited about the ECW pay per view. He was sharing his joy with Eric. Only Eric was pissed. He thought he put an end to that pay per view. And just like a good heel Eric put ECW down by saying it was all blood, thumbtacks and barbwire. And as he’s listing these things the fans are cheering very loudly. He said he would call his attorney and squash ECW. I liked this so much because not only is this pay per view now getting on air hype but it makes me think we could see another ECW invasion and I’m always ready for that. We saw another quick match with Shelton Benjamin defeating Rob Conway. This had the makings of a very good match. It’s too bad it wasn’t longer. After Shelton won and walked up the ramp Hassan and Daivari came back out and attacked Shelton. Unfortunately for Shelton, Chris Jericho didn’t come out to help him. But next week it’s Benjamin and Jericho vs. Hassan and Daivari, and that should be a good match.
My little airhead Maria came through again. She was interviewing Shawn Michaels and asked him about his match with The Edge. When I heard The, I thought did I miss-understand her? But sure enough that’s what she did and Shawn just went with it. Kind of making fun of her, which I found very funny. And then what I liked was the way he really put Shelton Benjamin over. I would like to think that Shawn meant every word. I totally agree with Shawn when he said Shelton is one of the best young talents that he’s seen in years. Trust me Benjamin is definitely the future of WWE. But back to Shawn. It seems like Shawn had a little bit of trouble making his entrance. I was hysterical when Shawn’s costume seemed to be giving him problems once he was on his knees. I liked the way Shawn reacted and handled the situation. And I also liked his match against Edge. This was a terrific main event. Anytime Shawn and Edge work together you get a top match this was no exception. Like Benoit I wasn’t surprised that Shawn lost, but I will say the briefcase shot to Shawn’s head from Edge even hurt me. So it’s now Edge vs. Kane next week and let’s see if Lita turns on Kane and helps Edge win.
It was a good show, and now I’m all set for Smackdown. I figure with Carlito having Big Show as his guest, Kurt Angle and Booker heating things up, Eddie and Rey going after each other, and JBL and Cena building things up for Judgment Day Smackdown should be a very good show to watch. Okay I want to end with this. Carol, a friend of Tony Norris (Ahmed Johnson) emailed me last week. She told me that Tony would love to get back into wrestling. The following comes from Carol and I hope you will decide to email her and bring Tony back.
Tony is a bit anxious to get back to action and he misses interacting with “his people”. He wants the people to know that it’s still all about them. What a perfect way to let Tony know, we, the people, haven’t forgotten him, then to put your name down and let him know just how much we care! Bring back Ahmed Johnson!
cmojala@oberon.ark.com
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
