I thought Raw was outstanding last night, and this is a column I could not wait to write. The Dallas fans were totally into the show, and I wanted to be right there with them. What a great night for WWE fans. It’s nice when you have almost three hours of perfection. Sure there were just few things that did not hurt the show, but certainly didn’t add to it, so let me go there right now. And then it’s all nothing but positives about one hell of a show.
Raw flowed until the Gene Okerlund/Hulk Hogan interview. Now many of you know I am not a Hogan fan. But I would like to think that in the past when he’s done something good I’ve praised him about it. Well last night he was a train wreck. That interview with Mean Gene was like something out of elementary school. As soon as Hogan started with Brother, I knew we were in trouble. Hogan looked like he didn’t want to be there and this is where I stopped taping, I was very disappointed in this segment. I was also very upset that the Smackdown match between Batista, Rey Mysterio and Chris Benoit vs. JBL, Eddie Guerrero and Christian was canceled. That really bugged me. Supposedly because the Austin segment ran too long there was not enough time to do this match. As much as I liked the Austin segment which I’ll get into in a little bit, it still bothers me that we lost a match with potential.
And finally the main event was horrible. It’s funny when Kurt Angle was in there against Shawn Michaels earlier in the show; Kurt was perfect during that match. But when he came out to assist Eric Bischoff, I totally lost interest in his character. I found John Cena to offer nothing to this main event and honestly watching another Angle vs. Cena feud for the next few weeks going into Taboo Tuesday does nothing for me. So that’s it other than the three segments I mentioned Raw flowed. Sure I could say that the bra and panties match with Trish and Ashley vs. Candice, Torrie and Victoria was kind of crappy, but you know what? It was what it was, so I can’t say it was bad it was just filler for all you guys and from some of the feedback I have been getting the match went over fairly well. Let me just tell you all the things that I really liked, and yeah they will be out of order. Randy Orton came alive last night. This was the Orton that used to get the fans riled up, he had fire in him, and it was great seeing him take down Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mick Foley. In fact Piper is going to be on Smackdown in a handicap match against the Orton’s Friday night. While this might not be a match we are all dying to see, this is just what Randy Orton needs. Instead of coming out and just going through the motions Randy came out like a guy that wasn’t taking crap from anyone, and again I loved it.
The Iron Man match was my match of the night. Again Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle put on a five star match and not having a winner at the end was the right way to go. I mean how could one win and be crowned the best in the business? It wouldn’t have made sense. This whole match was booked perfectly and you have no idea how much I wish these two would be feuding, instead of Angle and Cena. The ladder match with Edge and Matt Hardy was so close to being the match of the night, so close. I totally loved what Edge and Matt put out there. Lita gets high marks from me as well. She played her part perfectly and watching her hang on to those ropes so Matt could not free himself to stop Edge was one of the best things I’ve seen her do. Matt lost and now he’s off to Smackdown and while I’m sure he won’t get the push of a lifetime, I’m hoping that Vince doesn’t give up on him. I would love to think that he will be given some top guys to feud with.
Eric Bischoff came up with one good line last night when he finally stood up to Vince McMahon. Vince finally got the best of Bischoff by not allowing Eric to have a no DQ match against Cena. It was kind of nice seeing Bischoff get in Vince’s face by asking Vince if he was hired to just so
Vince could embarrass him. And then the line of the night, “Will there be a self-destruction of Eric Bischoff DVD some day?” That was one hell of line since it definitely was directed at the Ultimate Warriors DVD where the theme seems to be all negative about Warrior. I really got into this whole segment. I also found myself enjoying Austin and the McMahon’s. I can’t say it was Steve Austin that appealed to me; I think for me at least it was having each McMahon come out. It’s been two years since Stephanie has been on TV so it was nice seeing her in her Bitch mode. And Shane at least got to dance, which of course was never my favorite thing about him, but still bringing him out was cool. And Linda McMahon let loose last night, sharing beers with Austin. I never thought I would see Mrs. McMahon get the Stone Cold Stunner. And as bad as it was she did get it. It was a fun segment and yeah maybe a little bit too long, but still really entertaining. Of course most of you know that I’ve been waiting for months for Hunter’s return. And I wasn’t disappointed. I liked the tag team match with Hunter/Flair vs. Carlito and Masters. This was another match where Masters came off well as did Carlito. I think the more they get to wrestle and leave their gimmicks behind the better they look in the ring. Now the majority of us read the rumors about Hunter turning on Flair so during the whole match I knew it was coming. It wasn’t a shocker, but I always LOVE when Hunter is violent, and last night was no exception. The beating of Flair came off well, again a little too long, but still it was very effective. I can’t wait to find out next week why Hunter was so angry and hostile to Flair. And the last two things that appealed to me, was bringing out the legends to the ring and having Rob Conway come out. Conway held his own out there and Dusty Rhodes did a nice job putting Conway in his place. This was a nice way to get the legends out there take out Conway and make Conway’s character just a little more interesting than being just a pretty face. And finally Mae Young thank you for always finding a way to make me laugh and laugh hard. I was hysterical with her and her “puppies.” I think her big smile just adds to her routine. I’m really happy she’s still alert enough to be a part of the shows.
So there you are a super show that really had an extra special feeling to it. Now here’s hoping that this wasn’t a one night thing, and that this move to the USA network will bring back the WWE of old. I really liked their new slogan, The Power Is Back, has a nice ring to it. So now it’s on to Smackdown and I believe there might be more than just Rowdy Roddy Piper from Raw showing up on that show. I probably won’t do a Smackdown column since Sunday is No Mercy and I’ll have predictions, but then again I’ll see if I can get something out. Now I want to end with this. I watched Impact Saturday night. I will keep this very short. I watched the first 50 minutes of the show, and except for another miserable squash with Monty Brown and a very sub par match between Jeff Hardy vs. Rhino, the X Division came through and came through in a big way. There were two terrific matches. The first was with AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong. And the second match was Petey Williams vs. Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin; this was really a strong match. The guys from the X Division will be the reason I will continue to watch Impact. I turned the show off as soon as Jarrett came off. I read that I missed the Dudley’s or Team 3-D that’s their name now. I feel bad about that, but I got more than enough in 50 minutes that I watched and missing the last 10 doesn’t bother me at all. And now it’s time for another reader’s request, I hope some of you can help him. I’m looking for WCW tapes from 1997- The Demise of WCW. I am talking about the Nitro’s and the Pay Per views… I will pay any asking price… Especially the Bash at The Beaches… Have people email me… or My Space me… nu2life80@aol.com
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
