Raw was BLEEPING good last night. I owe that one to my husband. What made the show so much fun was Spike doing all they could to bleep out the USA plug. The censoring started at the beginning and just kept on going. It was blast watching and waiting to see who would win the battle. I totally loved what Raw had to offer last night. Even the most sedate matches were okay. I can’t complain about a thing, that’s a shocker isn’t it?
Last week I said Vince McMahon was off of his game. But last night the man was RIGHT ON. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed him. I loved his thank you to Spike for their glorious years on that channel. Call it BS or call it the truth, but whatever the case it was a fitting thing for Vince to do. And with all the nice compliments Vince gave to Spike TV the bleeping began. I was curious to see if they would let Vince mention the USA network. Well we quickly found out that it wasn’t going to be allowed at least not at the beginning of the show. And that set the tone for what was to be a very memorable and entertaining Raw. Kurt Angle in his own way bleeped Vince out too. By that I mean he came to the ring to interrupt Vince. Kurt couldn’t understand why Eric Bischoff would be getting the title shot next week at Homecoming. Kurt figured that since he beat John Cena (by DQ) at Unforgiven he was the number one contender. Then one of my favorite entrance themes hit; Sexy Boy and Shawn Michaels made his way to the ring.
I liked watching the short interaction between Kurt and Shawn. The reason I liked it so much was because Kurt stepped out of his new tough ass character and acted like the brat that I’m used too. First Shawn figured that since he beat Chris Masters at Unforgiven that the title shot should be his. Then the brat Angle responded by saying that he beat HBK at Wrestlemania, and Shawn hit him with yeah he remembered that but who beat Angle at Vengeance? And that’s when Kurt’s comeback was “but I beat you first.” I loved it, these two had chemistry from the start and it was still strong last night. I was thrilled that Vince booked the 30 Minute Iron Man Match for next week’s show between Angle and Shawn Michaels. Without a doubt this is a pay per view match and we all get free at Homecoming next Monday night. This was a cool opening and I want to thank the Spike TV executives for getting things going.
I totally like I almost said love but I’ll say like Torrie Wilson as a heel. She’s such a whiny little baby; she’s finally making it easy for me to watch her. Trish vs. Victoria was a good match, and it’s so great having Miss Stratus back. I’m fine with Ashley because right now she’s being used right. She does a few and I mean a few moves and that’s all Vince should allow from her. I got a kick out of Candice. Her reaction from the crowd when her clothes were ripped off was perfect. What I’m trying to say is this was a segment that came off very well and I give all five women credit for doing a nice job. The Big Show vs. Gene Snitzky was another match that did its job. It was a Street Fight we got some weapons in there, it was short and it worked for me. Now I want to touch on something, and no it’s not Big Show. Okay first we see Maria comforting Ric Flair. Ric was still feeling his injuries from last weeks beating by Carlito and Chris Masters. Now here’s what I want to talk about. Ric comes out and okay I will say it wasn’t a strong promo or one of his best, but he came out and put over Hunter as the greatest wrestler alive today, and more importantly his best friend.
Now I noticed today that some feedback on a few sites had a deep problem with this. They saw this as Flair being nothing more than Hunter’s errand boy. See I differ strongly about that. I saw this as a way to get their feud off to a good start. Here we have Flair singing the praises of his best friend, his buddy Hunter. The pal that is going to screw him over if the rumors are true. And then they will hopefully start one hell of a feud. So no, Ric wasn’t an errand boy or Hunter’s whore he was Flair doing his job and setting up a storyline. The Eric Bischoff, John Cena skit in Bisch’s office was okay. It was a way for Cena to put some fear into Eric and get him even more worried about his match against Cena next week. This time I thought Shelton Benjamin vs. Kerwin White came off so much better than a few weeks ago. I kind of like White’s caddy, Nick Nemeth. I like this guys looks. And one of the funniest lines of the night came from Shelton. He said that it was good that Kerwin had a caddy, because he now has someone carry his clubs and wash his balls. Oh yeah that had me laughing. As I said I liked the match and I especially liked Shelton last night, he seemed more focused and I just hope we get more of Shelton each week. Props go out to Lita and Edge. Each one did a very nice job on the mic putting Matt Hardy down. Lita has shown me a side of her that I never expected; she can do mic work and not force it. Her heel character is coming along very well and on the mic she’s shown a lot. Edge has done some very good promos since this feud with Matt started. Last night he kept it short and added a little extra to it by sitting on a ladder. This was to set things up for next week’s big Ladder Match loser leaves Raw. So I’m taking all of this in with Lita an Edge and then Matt Hardy gets in that ring and teases Edge by tilting the ladder back and forth. Matt kept it going for a few seconds, and then started to leave. But that was just a small tease, because Matt walked back and pushed the ladder with Edge falling off the rope and onto the floor. This was quite an effective segment, one that I was very into.
Holla Holla, Theodore Long popped up to visit Eric Bischoff last night. And the more Teddy talked the more pissed off Bischoff got. Long came up with a great idea, why not have some Smackdown stars at the Raw Homecoming. And in typical fashion, Eric was rude and didn’t want to hear a thing. Of course this brought Vince in, and Eric was like a different person. Anything Mr. McMahon says is fine with Bischoff, and Vince gave Long the okay to set up a Smackdown match. Eric brings out Vince the face, Vince brings out the coward Eric and I love it. And I also think it’s a good idea setting up the Smackdown match. Why? I’ll tell you why. Many feel that these brands should be kept separate. And while that might be true, week after week on both shows we get the highlights from the other brand, so one match isn’t going to do any damage. And I believe with Smackdown being moved to Friday’s an appearance next Monday just helps get that message across even more. I mean it doesn’t hurt to remind fans that it’s now Friday Night Smackdown. The next match was Cade/Murdoch vs. Val Venis/Viscera. This was good not super good but good.
With the tag team division being so weak on both shows, it’s hard to get excited about watching a match since there’s really no build up going into it. I think it’s very important that Vince does all he can to get the division going on both sides and bring in some strong talent, either from OVW or from the outside, but the tag team titles really don’t amount to much on either show, it’s time for that to change. You know what? I really thought Eugene vs. Rob Conway was not only fun to watch but one of the best of the night. What I liked about Conway and yes I said liked was that instead of strutting around and over doing it as a pretty boy, he lost his cool when Eugene put on his sunglasses. I loved it that Conway started screaming repeatedly to take them off. Just a little thing like that got me more into his character. I still feel Eugene is a good wrestler and these two really came through last night. Now I keep forgetting to say during the whole show Spike is still bleeping USA out, and Coach is coming up with things like, “If you want to know why they are bleeping us out go to WWE.com and find out.” And while this is all going on for almost two hours I’m just laughing and having a lot of fun with it.
Finally toward the end, the USA network managed to get on the air. Lawler and Coach just kept saying and getting it in there and at one point Spike was bleeping at the wrong time. I told you this was fun. Well by the time the main event hit there was no more editing, they were free to hype the USA network all they want. And now it was time to focus on the last match of the night. It was a tables match with John Cena and Shawn Michaels vs. Carlito and Chris Masters. Now I got my Unforgiven video, but I haven’t watched it yet. I am telling you that because I really wanted to keep my eyes peeled on Masters. And I’m happy to say that he did a good job. Again it wasn’t the Chris Masters that just stands there and puts on the Masterlock. This Masters wrestled, he didn’t open his mouth to brag about how great he was and that’s why I thought he came off well. I was pleased not only with Masters, but also with Carlito. As heels I thought they did their job perfectly. And as the faces Cena and Michaels get thumbs up too. I expected Kurt Angle to get in there and he did, and of course so did Eric Bischoff. I felt the faces had to lose since they won last week and I was right. Both went through the tables. I was kind of surprised to see Shawn go through the table because of all his back problems, but he did it. And Carlito and Masters won a big one. Then ending was done very well when Eric picked up the Championship Belt and held it high in the air and as JR would say John Cena was a fallen man just looking up at Bischoff and holding his hand out as if he was telling Eric to give him his belt back. A very cool ending and one hell of a show.
So we all know that next Monday night on the USA network (cheap plug) Raw returns. And it’s going to be filled with a lot of past and present stars. It should be one great night. I will be back at the end of the week with, well honestly I’m not sure yet, but I hope you will check out my column. And yes I have another request from a reader, so again thank you in advance and here it is. Where can I get any WCW tapes from 1996, 1997, 1998? I’m from New Zealand and there hard to get down here jeremybason@hotmail.com
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
