I could not wait to write this column. My son Jason and I had a blast at Raw last night. Now I haven’t watched my tape yet, but I was really surprised to see that there were so many negative comments on many of the sites today. Well live I thought the show was excellent. But I will say even though my son liked it, he was disappointed that they didn’t do something really big for the 700th show. But let me tell you this, Jason hasn’t gone to a live show with me for a good 4 years and having him with me was so much fun. Let me just share with you what it was like being there. I want to start with the crowd first, then tell you about a fantastic WWE video that was shown, then a few thoughts about Heat and then on to Raw and finally what we saw after Raw went off the air.
First of all when we got to the Allstate arena I saw quite a few fans with DX shirts and DX signs. And DX seemed to be Chicago’s favorites last night. There were more DX signs in the arena than anything else. Although three was one anti Cena sign that I found funny. It was Cena Fears Skills. I was wondering if that sign was confiscated early on, because I never did see it as the show went on. But back to DX. For me it was a complete thrill to be at the show to see DX live since I came in just as DX was splitting up. Also excluding Wrestlemania 22 and Raw the next night, this was the first WWE event that I have been too in a long time that was completely sold out. In the last few years parts of the upper levels have been roped off. In fact that became a very common practice here. But last night it was refreshing to see the arena packed at its fullest. Now I was so impressed with one of the videos that came on first. It was the WWE superstars being shown for all the different things that they have done. Like charity work, entertaining the troops, celebrities that have taken part with the company, just so many things that WWE has done in the past that would make you all feel very proud of them. It was a fantastic video, and honestly I think one of the best that they have ever made. So all of the above got things off to a good start.
Now unfortunately Heat was next, and while every match was worked hard, not every match appealed to me. For instance having Hacksaw Duggan vs. Colt Cabana was longer than it needed to be. Cade/Murdoch vs. The Highlanders was okay but not exactly a must see match. But there was one match that did appeal to me, in fact it appealed to me so much that I took it upon myself to do some loud cheering for Charlie Haas. Oh yeah it was Haas vs. Super Crazy. Here are two guys that I like so much and because of their in ring skills you can imagine how good this one was. If you remember last year after Haas was released there were stories about how this guy couldn’t generate any fan reaction. Well it was quiet for a few minutes but then the crowd started chanting and chanting loud, “Charlie Sucks.” This was music to my ears. Finally he got heat some nice heat and I’m sure it had to make him feel good. So one terrific Heat match and now it’s time for Raw.
Oh I see many fans are getting really pissed off about Kevin Federline showing up again on Raw. Oh yeah some in fact are really taking this hard. I gave this guy props last week and he gets them again for last night’s opening. As I said last week, I’m not a Federline fan and I will probably never be one, but you have to hand it to him. He can handle the mic and he handles it like the cocky SOB that he really is. Let’s face it the guy is rolling in money because of his wife and that’s one of the reasons that he comes off as arrogant as he does, he has absolutely nothing to lose, he’s got Ms. Spears to back him up. But last night not only did he again put John Cena down but he continued to bash the fans as well. And did you notice the reaction the fans were giving him? Oh you could feel the heat and it was amazing. Say what you want about K-Fed but man he knows how to piss off the crowd. Not only was I enjoying Mr. Federline, but it was a nice surprise to have King Booker and Queen Sharmell come out. Now it’s not always easy to hear what’s being said at the Allstate arena, and I did get most of Booker’s promo, but the one thing he said that absolutely made me laugh was when he paid a compliment to Federline’s rapping. When he said that he listened to K-Fed’s CD and called it a treasure that started me off, but what really did it was when King Booker in his “British” accent called him a gifted and talented ARTEEST, and yes I spelled that wrong but that’s how he pronounced artist. That was it for me I was not only laughing but I was so glad that Booker was there because he brought so much to that opening. He and K-Fed worked very well together.
Big Show was next to come out and he received a nice reaction. Show was okay and then John Cena came out. Well let me tell you a few things about Cena. Back in the day, like April 2006 at Wrestlemania 22 and Raw the following night, Cena was just about booed out of the building. Ah but last night while there were boos and Cena sucks chants which by the way my son and I started in our section, John Cena was so over that I could not believe what I was hearing. Jason and I were laughing because I told him my crowd let me down, we had a blast with all of this and everyone that sat near in our area that were Cena fans were taking it well and those that felt like we did joined in and also laughed, it was just a nice atmosphere all around. So a very cool opening segment and I give King Booker and K-Fed thumbs up for making it so good. Also how nice was it to see and hear Faarooq do his famous “Damn” last night?
The Semi Finals with Melina vs. Mickie James didn’t get the best reaction from the crowd. Mickie did seem to be the favorite and get the best reaction. I wasn’t too keen on the match; it didn’t really come off all that well. Melina seemed flat, and I’m not talking about her chest, but she seemed a little off, so this was one of the weak matches of the show. Jeff Hardy was super over last night and I liked the match with Hardy and Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin and Chris Masters. I will say there was no reaction for Masters at all and when Shelton came out he didn’t exactly get a strong reaction either but I was very glad that I got to see him wrestle. As I said I liked this match very much and my only complaint was that I didn’t like Carlito and Hardy at each others throat at the end. Since last week it seems to me that they are going to turn Carlito heel and I really hope I’m so wrong about that. I like him as a face and I’m not ready to see the turn.
The backstage segment with Edge and Randy Orton was good, and I wish they would have put those two guys out in the ring earlier in the night to get the fans going even more. I liked the Johnny Nitro vs. John Cena match. I liked Nitro’s wrestling and seeing him in person made me like his style even more. He has shown me so much that I look forward to watching him in the ring. There are some weeks when his mic work is really bad and other times when it’s not bad at all. I think this guy will make it if he can just improve on is mic work and make it consistently good each week. But back to the match, I wasn’t able to see K-Fed slap Cena, but the crowd sure saw it and let Federline have it. And I really liked the way the rest played out with Cena chasing K-Fed up the ramp and then Booker and Big Show came out and destroying Cena. This was done well and King Booker again stole the segment by taking Big Show out after Cena’s demise. What a way to set things up for their Cyber Sunday match in two weeks.
Now I was really shocked by the quite reaction Cryme Tyme got last night. Last week the Los Angeles crowd really welcomed them loudly, but last night it wasn’t even a luke warm reception. Yeah that disappointed me. I’m glad that I saw them live, but I have to say their match against Nicky and Mikey did nothing for me. As I said last week I would rather see Cryme Tyme on Smackdown because on Raw I think God for bid they will go the way of the Highlanders and Cade and Murdoch, it seems to be a pattern on Raw They build these guys up so much and then they quickly lose momentum. Now I was at the Raw where Umaga made his debut and I bashed him like crazy, but last night I liked him. I sure have a way of changing my mind a lot don’t I? Umaga squashing Eugene was a given, but I didn’t get the backstage segment with Hacksaw telling Eugene to let it go. That I didn’t get or maybe I just didn’t care about it.
I was so happy to be able to see not only Ric Flair, but Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes live. Again like a few weeks ago with Ted Dibiase, Arn Anderson and IRS this was a thrill for me. While I didn’t want to see Ric vs. Nicky, from the Spirit Squad I understand where they are going with it. I believe Nick’s win is a way for him to pull further away from the Squad and yeah I think it’s time for the Squad to disband. But I liked having the legends in the ring and doing their moves on Nicky and the rest of the Squad after they came in to attack Flair.
DX was extremely funny last night. I like their elevator/stairway humor. And even though the show was basically DX free for most of the night, that short segment with Hunter and Shawn was damn good. It was nice having Eric Bischoff make an appearance along with Coach to watch Randy Orton vs. Triple H. See Bisch has been off TV for a while so having him show up last night was nice. I thought the main event though short was very good, the crowd was very into it, and the Orton win thanks to Eric was perfect, it’s just what should have happened, since the Legend Killer lost to Hunter last week. I like this feud very much and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next week with this group.
After Raw went off, Shawn helped Hunter who was down from that chair shot. After a few minutes DX did their thing and worked the crowd. They did let’s see what section can cheer the loudest routine. And the crowd was eating it up. That went on for a few minutes and then Shawn and Hunter left the ring and shook hands with the fans around the ring area. See this was very cool to me, because I have never gone to a live show where Hunter was a face. This was new to me and I liked it so much, you can tell that both guys are really enjoying what they are doing right now. Okay once they left we got Batista vs. Booker T. There was no way that we were going to leave and it seems like the majority of the fans felt the same way. The arena was still packed for this match. Batista got a super reaction. It was a short match but a good one. Batista won on a DQ when he was hit by Booker with the title. After that match Batista worked the crowd for a while and that was it.
So as you can probably tell I had a hell of a good time. We had great seats, the crowd was awesome and the show was a hot one at least it was live. Okay, WWE.com just put up on their site there is a ladder match tonight with Big Show vs. RVD for the ECW title on ECW. Well I don’t see RVD winning but RVD in a ladder match means you don’t want to miss the show. I’m going to take the weekend off but I will be watching Smackdown I just won’t be around too much on Saturday and Sunday. I will leave you with Monty Brown and WWE are supposedly in talks about a contract.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
