What the hell can I say about last night’s Raw? Oh I know it was AWESOME. And I credit two strong in ring non wrestling segments for a very very good show. Also the Green Bay crowd was on fire. This doesn’t happen often but I was so excited about writing this that I thought that I would get this out sooner than later. Now let me explain something I will be focusing on those two strong segments and also there is something else I need to get off my chest about the ending of Raw. What I am getting at is this; I won’t really go into the matches in length only because there’s a lot I want to talk about. So let me get started.
When Lita and Edge came out to explain there new alliance you just knew that not only would the Matt Hardy chants start, but either Lita or Edge or both would get in a few zingers dealing with Matt and his followers. And that’s just what happened. See I’m so hyped about this my mind is racing right now. While I feel Lita still can’t act, the script was powerful enough to make her come off damn good last night. Let the chants begin, and that’s just what happened. While the “You Screwed Matt” chants were out there, the Slut chants against Lita were loud and a little vicious. If you looked at some of the fans sitting closer to the ring you could just see a lot of anger in their faces as they continually chanted Slut while Lita talked. But this didn’t seem to take Lita down. Turning her heel and putting her with Edge was more than likely done due to Matt spreading his hurt and anger at Lita and Edge all over the internet. We all know the chants against Lita at times became so loud that it was hard to take her seriously as a face.
So last night the majority of the crowd played right into the angle and it worked out brilliantly. You think Vince was going to let Matt and his fans have the final say about this whole situation? Hell now, Lita was given some pretty harsh lines to say where Matt was concerned. For instance saying that she fell in love with a real man. Or how about, no other man that she’s been with ever satisfied her except for the man that she was seeing behind Kane’s back. Now remember this was directed at Kane, but I will bet you anything it was all totally directed at Matt. While all of this was very nasty it was hypnotic. I couldn’t help but want more to come from Lita. Then having Edge call Lita his slut was oh so appropriate. Reality opened up the show and it had to be one of the best opening acts in a long time. I don’t know who was responsible for the script, but it definitely worked. It showed why Lita was with Edge, but more importantly is was a punishment to Matt and his M’Fers. The chants can and will continue but this time Vince is ready for them, and if last night is an indication, the pairing up of Edge and Lita is going to become more exciting each week.
The other segment which if possible was stronger than the opening segment was seeing Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff standing next to each other and hyping up ECW’s One Night Stand. Let me tell you Paul Heyman did what he does best, he talked about “his child,” ECW and spewed out names and facts and showed why ECW was more than just table and chairs. This man was amazing last night. Watching him give it to Bischoff made me realize that Paul Heyman doesn’t come off half as well as a manager as he does as a spokesman. He was flawless. The man had me in the palm of his hand the whole time. Also Vince was excellent. He looked extremely well rested. And totally into this segment. I loved the line where he told Eric that Bisch takes credit for the demise of ECW, but it was Vince that killed WCW. Eric took a lot of verbal abuse from Vince and Heyman last night. It was kind of a handicap match with Heyman and McMahon against Eric Bischoff. But Eric was fine, he took Vince’s comments a little hard, but the more Heyman talked the more Eric acted as if he wasn’t listening to a word he was saying. I cannot tell you what this segment meant to me. It made ECW come off like company that really meant something. It put so much importance of what ECW was all about. Like the writing for Lita and Edge earlier, I don’t think you could have asked for a better script for this segment. Each guy came off so well, the fans were just terrific and so very into all of this, and maybe I’m wrong but I really think if any one was hesitant about ordering One Night Stand, that hesitation flew right out the window after watching these three men. This by far was the highlight of Raw, I am just so proud of the way they were able to involve ECW with Raw. It’s a segment that I am so glad I witnessed.
Okay now my last main thought has to do with Hunter returning after being out for only one week. I would be lying to you if I said I was ecstatic to see him, because I wasn’t. However, I’m not taking the gloom and doom attitude that so many on the net seem to be taking. Let me explain. I think Hunter should have remained off for another week or two. I was totally surprised he came out last night. But being the Hunter fan that I am and you all know I am, I figured if I could go 2 hours and 5 minutes without him last night, I could wait another week for his return. When he showed up, I wont’ say I wasn’t excited because I was a little happy about it, but I noticed that Edge became a non entity, and we were back to Hunter and Batista and the set up for their next pay per view match at the end of June. Maybe if Ric Flair didn’t turn on Batista this ending would have been fun and worked out right. But we are back to Batista being fooled by Flair again, and Hunter right back in the title picture.
Okay here’s my take, or here’s what I’m really hoping will happen as the weeks go on. First how come Hunter returned after saying he was done with Raw and Eric Bischoff refused to call him back? My take is, maybe Eric worked a deal out with Hunter where Triple H will be one of the guys Bisch brings to stop the ECW pay per view. Maybe Bisch promised him this Hell In A Cell Match at Vengeance as a reward for going with Eric. A lot of fans feel that Hunter and Flair made the World champion look stupid. After all Flair turned on Batista again. You would think Dave would be smart enough not to be fooled like that. Now what if, at Vengeance it’s Ric Flair that screws Hunter and Batista and Flair had this planned all along? I think that would win back so many fans and give us a new Flair character and Hunter might be on his own which I wouldn’t mind. And what if in the next five weeks Batista screws Hunter; you know gets even with him, either by interfering in his matches or playing with Hunter’s mind again? See I don’t see Batista look dumb, I’m looking at this as next week Batista will turn things around, so sure Hunter and Flair got him last night, but Batista will make a strong comeback and look anything but stupid. I’m not going to give up on this angle, I’m hoping Batista will dominate what goes on for the next few weeks or at least will dominate more than Hunter. There is no doubt in my mind that Hunter will lose a third time to Batista, so I just have to think that next week the angle will fall into place.
Now quickly let me add, that I have an interior motive, okay okay I’m just pretending that I’m Maria. Hey Vince really has discovered a talent in Maria. Give her some words to screw up and along with her facial expressions we have a very amusing Diva to watch and listen too. I enjoyed Vis again. He’s shown me more in a few weeks than Mark Henry did the whole time he was Sexual Chocolate. Lillian again played off of him very well, and Coach taking the Samoan Drop and then having Vis ride him like a dog is always entertaining. And I like Coach, he plays a great heel, so it’s always nice to see him get it.
It was nice to see Chris Masters in a match for once. I thought Masters and Richards did a good job it’s just too bad the match was so short, but it beats a Masterlock segment anytime. Chris Jericho, what a wise guy, he’s a musical star now, he might be late for the shows, but that’s okay that’s how it is. How cool was he last night playing a total jerk? I loved it. Shelton vs. Hassan and Daivari was again short but decent. And poor Shelton was supposed to tag with Jericho but as I said he is too important to show up on time.
Jericho’s match again Sylvan Grenier was okay, again too fast to really get into, but watching Grenier on his own gives me hope that La Resistance is going going GONE!
And Chris Benoit vs. Tajiri had such possibilities but again the match was so rushed that it really didn’t amount to much. Kane did an excellent job rocking back and forth as a guy whose heart was torn out of him thanks to Lita. Now I want to know, just what WWE has planned for Kane, hopefully his character will get some added meanness to go with his freakiness. And finally the main event was excellent. Edge did a great job out there and I thought Christian and Tomko being out there to take out Batista for Edge was done very well. Batista looked good and the crowd definitely seems to love this guy.
So as you can see it was a strong show, an entertaining show and show that put the accent on two words, SHOOT COMMENTS! Yeah this is Raw that I’ll remember for a long time. And from what the readers and others on the net are saying, Judgment Day was a total success. After reading so many wonderful comments about just how great the show was I regret not ordering it. I only missed two picks, which were Booker and Heidenreich so that pleased me a lot. And now with Judgment Day over, will Kurt Angle get into the title race against John Cena? Who will JBL’s next victim be? Isn’t it time for Rey Mysterio to beat the crap out of Eddie? And are we done with Kurt the Pervert, or is there more to come. I do plan on showing up Friday to let you know how I felt about the show, and this time I’m hoping I’m going to love it.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
