Sure I’m a huge DX fan, and Hunter is my favorite wrestler, with Shawn Michaels my second favorite, but I have to say the show was so much better than the last couple of weeks and yes there was an awful lot of DX on Raw. But the majority of the DX skits worked with just a few exceptions, and because of that DX and Raw came off very well last night. The Manchester, England fans were great just like I thought they would be. After my Raw bashing column last week it’s nice to come up with something more positive this week. Let me tell you what I didn’t care for and then give you my highlights of the night.
When it comes to all the DX segments there are a few things that I would have changed. The first being the opening promo by Hunter and Shawn. I think it went on too long, it could have been cut down a lot and it would have worked much better. The opening match with DX vs. Cade/Murdoch and Charlie Haas and Viscera has been done so much that it meant nothing to me. Also I could have done without the Eugene segment and the Chris Masters segment with both guys trying to claim the bounty on DX. Those two segments didn’t quite have it. Other than those segments DX ruled and I get into more with them in a little bit. The one part of the show that really made me cringe was the return of that wonderful “Let’s see who can break the Masterlock segment. I was hoping we had seen the end of the Masterlock, but it’s back and as bad as it was when we used to get it every week. And to make matters worse we had to watch Jerry The King Lawler struggle to try to be the first one to break the damn thing. How pathetic would that have been to have a guy Lawler’s age breaking that move? I just despised all of this and the thought the Masterlock challenge just bugs me.
But everything else I liked and liked a lot. As far as DX goes and with the exception of what I just mentioned, they were a riot. I loved how they kept talking when members of the Spirit Squad tried to attack them. But things for me really got going with Cryme Tyme. I was hysterical watching Shawn talk “jive” to JTG and Shad, and Hunter so not cool trying to pick up what was being said. Hunter was at his best when I believe it was JTG that took out tickets and Hunter thought it was a gun and backed away fast. Shawn was hilarious just saying anything to sound really with it. This was a great segment and it just continued with DX going inside the arena and tossing out DX merchandise to fans and then sitting at ringside. Then to top it off watching DX take in the Lita vs. Mickie James match was icing on the cake. I had no problem with the match even though this time Mickie had her feet shackled, I still felt entertained by Lita and James. But watching DX start a Lita is a ho chant added to what was going on in the ring. And the antagonizing finally got to Lita as she confronted Shawn and Hunter. How great was it to see Hunter react with a few squirts of mustard right at her face after Lita pushed Triple H? DX came through last night and I’m going to credit them for making this a much improved Raw.
But wait there’s more. Like a very good IC title match with Johnny Nitro vs. Jeff Hardy. Had I not read the spoilers no way would I have believed that Hardy would have gotten that victory after losing the title last week. What a terrific match! And after being so disappointed Jeff lost last week, I was extremely happy to see the belt back with him. John Cena vs. Umaga came off well. It was short and I’m sure no one expected Cena to beat Umaga, no not yet. The no DQ last night made a lot of sense to me. It’s too early in this feud for Umaga to lose his first match. Cena will be the one that delivers that loss but having Big Show interfere was a good way to keep heat going between himself and Cena. With the Survivor Series coming up and Cena and Big Show both captains on opposite teams I totally understood why they threw Big Show into this segment.
While having The Highlanders vs. Kenny and Johnny of the Spirit Squad really means nothing, I will say this match was good. It flowed very well. I still feel that Robbie and Rory move very well in the ring, but it’s like they need so much more too really get them over. Not only did I like the match but I liked the fact that Kenny got the win when he cradled Robbie after pushing Johnny into Rory. Watching Johnny react to Kenny after the match gave me hope that the split is still on. Now on to Carlito. Carlito and Trish Stratus had IT. I’m not so sure about Carlito and Torrie, but I’m willing to see how this all plays out. I just wish they would give Carlito a good push and keep him as close to the top as possible. Finally while the main event with Randy Orton and Edge taking on Ric Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper for the tag team titles turned out to be a Ric Flair beating by Superstar RKO. I am very pleased that Edge and Orton are the new tag team champions. Let’s face it Piper is not in any shape to be in that ring week after week and both Piper and Flair really don’t need to be tag team champions. I think the win by Edge and Randy was extremely appropriate and hopefully now with the titles their feud with DX will get a little more intense.
So as you can see I liked the show very much. And since the Manchester crowd for Raw was so strong I’m looking forward to hearing them at Smackdown. I want to end with one thing. Today one of my readers asked me if I watch ECW. He wondered about that since I never write about the show. I thought that he asked a very good question. I watch ECW every week and really like it. The hour just flies by and ECW puts on some very solid matches. Now the reason I don’t write too much on ECW is because I hate to wear my welcome out and do a Raw column on Tuesday, an ECW column on Wednesday and then over the weekend a Smackdown column. But I will try every once in a while to get an ECW column up.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
