I’m going to say right out front that Raw did nothing at all for me last night. However, with the schedule that these WWE superstars have been on and the death of Eddie Guerrero, I would say that this past week has taken a toll on the wrestlers. And truthfully it’s not the wrestlers that made Raw bad I feel it was the writing; the show just bored me last night. The Sheffield England crowd gets props from me because for a mediocre show they did their best to keep things noisy.
I know I’m still not over the shock of losing Eddie Guerrero. Maybe that’s why I just couldn’t get into last night’s show. I will say the only feud that has my interest is the Smackdown vs. Raw feud. I did like the opening very much. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching Eric Bischoff’s Raw team of Shawn Michaels, Chris Masters, Kane, Big Show and Carlito go at it with Theodore Long’s guys Batista, Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley and Rey Mysterio. It’s always nice to see a brawl and even nicer when it’s Raw vs. Smackdown. I was very happy about the way that they handled the Batista injury by having Kane and Big Show choke-slam Batista on the hood of the car. Of course we didn’t see it but we heard a thunderous noise and Joey Styles played that up perfectly. Again I was so happy to hear Styles last night. He did another good job and because of the job Styles did, Coach came off okay. He didn’t dominate the mic. So I was hoping that this opening would have set the tone for a good show but that didn’t happen.
Now here’s where the bitching comes in. First we have Ric Flair vs. Murdoch. I didn’t mind the match at all. I thought it was fine. But what I did mind was having Hunter on the titan tron making sure Flair knew just what would be in store for him at the Survivor Series. Hunter told Flair that later on he would show Flair just what he would do to him on Sunday. And a little later on it’s Hunter vs. Val Venis. This took about three minutes with Hunter coming out on top as he took Val out with a chair and continued to beat him. And that was it, the end of the Hunter/Flair segment. I complained before Taboo Tuesday’s pay per view and again I will complain again. How the hell can anyone have any interest in this feud? Hunter and Flair have hardly been on and with the Survivor Series just around the corner I really expected a bigger build up and boy I sure didn’t get it. And to top things off Val Venis is Hunter’s victim and I’m wondering why Val. Then today I remembered that they showed the video from a few weeks ago of Hunter beating Viscera. So I guess now Val is Vis’s tag team partner and Val was out there for revenge. Okay to me that made no sense, but as I said this whole feud that should have been BIG is so minor it’s not even funny.
It’s obvious that this pay per view is built around the Smackdown and Raw feud. JBL came out and stopped the Tajiri vs. Rob Conway match before it even got started. Bradshaw was so PISSED since Batista was “taken to a medical facility” after being choke-slammed by Kane and Big Show. JBL attacked both Tajiri and Conway. He then called out Masters to get his ass kicked. But Bischoff came out instead and he insulted JBL and made a match. But not with Masters, it would be Shawn Michaels vs. JBL. Again this was a good segment and a match I was looking forward too. But first we had Kurt Angle vs. Shelton Benjamin. Kurt again put the crowd down and saw to it that the You Suck chants were beeped out. Daivari came out as the ref.. I was concerned that because Daivari was in there we wouldn’t get much of a match. But I was so wrong. By far this was my match of the night. Even with a crooked ref the match was great to watch and played out brilliantly. I don’t know how many times Shelton needs to prove himself in the ring. He worked so well with Angle last week and this week and we all know what a great job he did against Hunter and Shawn Michaels in the past. I just wish we would see this man get a nice push. Anyway this was a very good match with a Kurt Angle win. I have to say Kurt Angle’s character is losing appeal with me. I guess I just like the dorky bragging Angle and this tough guy just doesn’t work for me.
After the match Kurt got on the mic and announced that Daivari is Kurt’s very own personal referee. I’m not into this duo at all. I hated seeing Kurt bogged down with Luther Reigns and Jindrak, and then Eric Bischoff. So now it’s Daivari. Kurt was only at his best when he lead Team Angle. That’s because Kurt had two very capable wrestlers in Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin to lead. So I may be jumping the gun but as of now I wish they would have found something else for Daivari to do. So Kurt informs Cena that Daivari will be the ref during their match at Survivor Series. Kurt keeps going on about how much he and Daivari have in common and then John Cena shows up on the Titon Tron. He’s going to ask WWE superstars what they think about Kurt Angle. This was one long segment and one I didn’t find it funny at all. I’m not even going to blame Cena for this. I’ll blame the creative team for what I saw. Hey had it be humorous I would have at least found something else on Raw to like but his was a dud. I never thought it would end. The only benefit of any of this was when Cena finally hit the ring and he and Angle went at it. That I liked other than those three seconds nothing here worked.
Mickie James vs. Candice was next. Now with Candice in there I’m sure we all knew this would not be long at all, and that’s exactly how it was quick and with a little help from Victoria Candice won. But there was a little bonus. Right before Candice won two hooded men carried Trish out of the area. That was the theme of this segment. This so called kidnapping was a great way to set up Melina vs. Trish for the women’s title at the Survivor Series. MNM was behind the whole kidnapping scheme. We later saw Trish tied up, and Melina informing Trish that it was Melina that beat her last week in the battle royal and it is Melina that is the dominant female in the WWE. Therefore it will be Melina vs. Trish for the women’s title at the Survivor Series. This was a nice little segment with Melina throwing her weight around. I especially loved how she kicked a defenseless Trish in the head to end the segment. Okay so here’s another match I’m looking forward too Sunday. The main event turned into a Lumberjack match. That match was made earlier when Long complained to Bisch about Batista being sent to the hospital and that his guys were now really ANGRY. So they both agreed to have this type of match.
And it was a good match, for me a little too long, but good. Now wouldn’t I didn’t get was this. We see how all the Smackdown lumberjacks always attacking HBK immediately when Shawn was on the ground. Yet it seemed to take the Raw team of Kane, Big Show, Carlito and Masters forever to rescue him. This happened a lot and it just seemed a little weird. But other than that it was a good match with a fairly predictable ending. And by that I mean it ended in a no contest. This way the show ended with both teams as equals. Things really heated up when they all got in the ring. Shawn gave his Sweet Chin music to JBL. Randy hit the RKO on Shawn and Carlito. Rey Mysterio took out Masters, and Kane took out Rey. Lashley tried to get rid of Big Show but it was Kane and Show that double choke-slammed him. Just a cool ending with both teams giving their all.
So as I said for me not a Raw I cared for yet a few things did entertain me. So it’s on to Smackdown and more of Team Batista and Team HBK going at it I’m sure. I’m hoping for a better show than what I got last night. And if the pattern sticks that just might happen. I’ll be back over the weekend with my Survivor Series predictions. Okay let me end with a few things. As many of you know a petition was started last week against Colin Cowherd for his disgusting comments about Eddie’s death. Well a reader of mine, Eric Schomburg wrote a beautiful article about this insensitive jerk so please check it out. http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=3698. And one more thing, another reader wanted those of you from England to know this, WWE Euro shop said that the Eddie tribute shirts will be released over there on the 25th and all proceeds will go to the Guerrero family.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
