I refuse to accept that, as John Cena’s music hit and the first draft lottery pick of 2005 just happened to be the current WWE champion, I am the only one who thought to themselves ‘you’re going to end up back on Smackdown by the time this is all over’. Whilst there is no logical reason to assume that Cena wouldn’t be a welcome addition to the Raw roster and a few strong, main event trades the other way over the next few weeks wouldn’t redress the balance, but it’s just way too neat to start the draft like this without something occurring that will remove the smile from Bischoff’s face. As a segment, I thought Jericho was far superior to Cena this week but only because John forgot all of the good work that he’s been doing recently with his meaningful, threatening promos aimed at JBL and resorted to cheap and childish inferences. This isn’t a homophobic thing, Cena and the WWE has far too much promotional machinery behind his image to be that stupid, it’s just that if Cena wants to be taken seriously as a legitimate wrestler and champion then he’s going to have to continue the good work he started at Judgement Day and not fall back on the safety of the gimmick. Christian’s spot in the segment was to be expected as a beat down in a superficial start to what might not even be a feud won’t hurt his standing. I would suspect that next week’s Raw tag match between Cena/Jericho and Christian/Tomko will end up being more mutually beneficial, though I have a feeling that Cena will start a secondary feud to maximise the time he has on Raw. No point in having him there if you’re not going to use him as much as possible.
In an odd move, the contract signing between Batista and HHH for the Hell in a cell match at Vengeance took place. No pull-apart brawl, no powerbomb through a table, no interruption from an interested third party. Just a bit of bland chatter from HHH (though not as dull as last week), a standard video package, the signatures and a stare down. In fact, the only thing of note from the piece was the use of the word ‘kill’ which normally goes against company policy. I’m glad that the segment wasn’t used as a construct for a Raw ‘memorable moment’ because, seeing as contract signings are overdone now, the angle required would have needed to be so huge that it would have drowned out the ECW theme of the show.
Speaking of ECW, the subject that many fans a few weeks ago were so concerned about not getting any airtime on WWE television dominated the show with five segments devoted to it. These started with Tajiri finding strength in his divided loyalties by informing William Regal, who has now joined Bischoff’s anti-ECW crusade, that he will still attend the One Night Stand PPV despite Regal’s advice not to. Later, Chris Benoit wrestled an ‘ECW rules’ match against Gene Snitsky which seemed to suffer from the stipulation, something that in ECW was a very freeing element to the action. Maybe it’s because in WWE the idea of a ‘weapons’ match contains those items that make the most noise but make the least amount of unacceptable damage? It’s unlikely that Raw or Smackdown will be embracing the skin-churning attributes of a cheese grater or barbed wire on a regular basis anytime soon. So we were left with some less than inventive uses for a garbage can which were wasted on the live audience until the table came out. Now there’s something we can all agree on; tables make for good spots. After a few teases, Benoit took a tumble to the outside and Snitsky was left to take the well-popped 3D through the table by the returning Dudleys. After a hastily arranged challenge with the Dudleys and Heyman, Bischoff waited in the ring with a small force by his side. When the ECW threesome answered the call only to find that Bischoff had no intention of making a fair fight of it and brought out the rest of his reserves, Heyman boosted his troops with an array of ECW stalwarts, most notably Tommy Dreamer, the Sandman and the recently released Rhyno. A brawl then ensued with the ECW alumni taking the honours thus ensuring that when the combined forces of Raw and Smackdown invade the ECW PPV this Sunday, the fight is most definitely on.
After a slow start to the build up of the ECW PPV, I think WWE has finally got it right. I appreciate that a lot of people are upset that the WWE’s influence over the card and the wrestlers who will appear has grown over the last week or so but I’m okay with the premise. If the two main WWE shows are the best place to promote the ECW PPV then it is logical that the programme be run as an ECW vs WWE feud and allow that to spill over to the supercard itself. It is unlikely that this incarnation will fall foul to the company burial that both ECW and WCW received during the initial ‘Invasion’ angle as Vince now has money invested in the perception and success of the upcoming PPV and it is more than conceivable that ECW will take the upper hand in any angle given the mostly lower-card proportion of the WWE crusaders.
One of the main drawbacks with being such an easily detestable character in the WWE, without instantly achieving the status that guarantees a certain position within the company (such as JBL), is that you become the ideal foil for any returning popular face who wishes to ride the heel heat that you have worked so hard to attain. After narrowly avoiding handing over all his good work to Hogan in the run up to Backlash and emerging from his annihilation at the hands of Batista last week with his momentum intact, Mohammad Hassan now has the spectre of Stone Cold Steve Austin to contend with next week on Raw. It’s also a no-win situation for Hassan as Austin won’t give him any of the potential rubs available to him and will more than likely show no fear, not back down in any way, dominate and humiliate conversationally and then ultimately ‘stunner’ Hassan and require him to sell it for the duration of a four-corner beer salute. Just like outgoing talent should elevate the next generation, a rookie with good heat and an spotless win/loss record should pass on the kudos for ending the streak to someone who can use it. Whilst it looks like Hassan will not lose a ‘match’ to Stone Cold next week and the encounter will be simply another nostalgic moment for fans of a former superstar, I’m concerned that, after all the good craft that’s been put into Hassan’s character, his impetus is handed to people who are only going to take it home and put it in a trophy cabinet along with all the other memories. This week, Hassan was given the more apposite assignment of wrestling with Daivari in a handicap IC title match against Shelton Benjamin. Despite there being a few awkward spots again, the match was an improvement on their previous encounter. Even though I don’t think Daivari is the problem, I’d be happier seeing Hassan and Benjamin in a one-on-one match and give them the time to relax and not feel that the spots are crammed together in quick succession. Vengeance would work.
I said this last week and I’ll say it again; it’s so good to have ‘mad’ Victoria back. Having Christy Hemme go equally as nuts this week added a secondary dimension to the feud as the portrayal of Christy as a terrified non-worker would have reduced it to the predictable nonsense that Victoria has done in the past with women like Teri Runnels and Stacey Keibler. At least we know that now, in terms of aggression, Victoria won’t have it all her own way and she’ll have to do more than a crazy stare to intimidate her opponent. The six-person tag team match, utilising the further talents of Rosey/Hurricane and The Heart Throbs was way too short and is a greater indictment of the weak tag team division that in prevalence it falls behind to a second string feud from the equally depleted women’s ranks.
Chris Masters was finally given something to do other than a challenge or a squash and ended up barely getting in an offensive move throughout his contest will Val Venis. Val’s solid but unspectacular offence shows why he’s never made it past the mid-card, even when he was at his height of popularity, but also why the WWE insists on keeping him on and occasionally throws him some business more important than another loss on Heat. When you consider that the combined gimmicks in this match added up to a sex-crazed pornstar and a narcissistic poser, it was nice to see that athletic competition was the focus and the feud was based around occurrences that took place in the ring and not a seedy angle designed to amuse Mr McMahon, if not anyone else.
It seemed like they didn’t have an idea in mind this week for the Kane/Edge/Lita saga so they just reaffirmed the respective positions and reminded us that Kane is depressed, Edge is annoying and Lita is a slut. I thought all concerned did a decent job of hyperbolising their character traits so that even the dimmest of fans could play along at home but if the writers can’t come up with something to advance the feud with two weeks to go until the PPV match and two of the three protagonists have received as much press as Edge and Lita have recently then they really have lost interest in all except ECW and that’s careless.
Overall, Raw had good segments that didn’t quite add up to a really good show. In the four matches, only one competitor out of thirteen could be considered an established big name (Benoit) as most superstars were on promo/angle duty and only two of those (Highlight reel and ECW ending) really delivered maximum entertainment. The good news from the broadcast is that the right direction has been taken. ECW has come to the fore, the issues relating to Vengeance took a back seat and allowed ECW to steal the headlines and, with the draft lottery taking the most positive starting point possible, it looks like being an interesting month to be a WWE fan.
Lee
