I had planned on doing a column over the weekend but, Saturday we were out and Sunday well I was engrossed in watching the Chicago Bears beat the Saints. I have a feeling most of you heard me screaming with joy. I’ll scream even louder when we beat the Indianapolis Colts. It will be drinks for everyone. Now seriously I feel bad that I didn’t write about Smackdown and Impact but I can’t wait to talk about last night’s Raw, and it’s not because the show was great, because for the most part I was BORED. In fact I found myself getting very restless watching most of it.
But there were a few VERY good segments and I will get into them in a little bit. Before I get into Raw, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about the death of Bam Bam Bigelow. My heart goes out to his family.
Of course I’m going to give you every thing that I didn’t like first, and end with the highlights. There aren’t many but thankfully what we got was off the charts. But first, props to John Cena for saving that horrible Vince McMahon/Coach segment. Listen the story is that NBC went to McMahon and informed him that Donald Trump needed to be a part of Raw to bring up the ratings for the Apprentice. Well maybe this could have worked, but I’m at the point now where I can’t even look at Vince, and Coach is just wasted out there. Cena at least brought some nice humor to this crap. But I have to say the thought of Vince coming out week after week right up to Wrestlemania is something that I am not looking forward too. As much as I like Super Crazy and I do I could not get into watching his match against Chris Masters. I was here, but I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. I thought Jeff Hardy and Joey Mercury had the makings of a terrific match but it was cut so short that it turned into a major let down for me. But then again, in all fairness, I don’t see how Mercury is working with such a major injury to his face and I believe that was THE main reason why we got a short match.
It pained me to see Carlito lose another match, this time to Kenny Dykstra. But I knew Kenny wasn’t going to lose to Carlito. Talk about being in Vince’s doghouse; I would say Carlito is a regular visitor in that house. And finally Cryme Tyme was just wasted last night. I am such big fans of JTG and Shad’s but that skit selling fake numbers for the Royal Rumble was just lame. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see them wrestle and it’s really too bad that the creative team couldn’t come up with something better. I guess you can tell that the majority of the show didn’t entertain me very much. But there were three matches and two stars well let’s say three stars that brought Raw back to life. First I cringed when I heard Vince McMahon make another Coach vs. Cena match. I always hate when they throw Coach in there. But thankfully it turned out to be a Gauntlet match and I thought it worked out well. I also loved the table spot with Umaga flying on top of John Cena. Didn’t Jerry The King Lawler play the part well as a very worried announcer wondering just how badly Cena was hurt? In fact if you go to WWE.com they have an update on the “injured” Cena. The second match was Candice and Mickie vs. Victoria and Melina. I thought this was a damn good tag team match and Candice was just outstanding. I have said this so many times before but you can see that she’s working on her wrestling skills and it certainly showed last night. I was so pleased with so many of her moves and as I said this was one of my favorite matches of the night.
And of course THE match of the night was the Street Fight with Edge vs. Shawn Michaels. Let me go back to the opening of Raw. Shawn Michaels gave one hell of a promo. He was focused, serious and talking about how the Heartbreak Kid and Showstopper is back. Shawn showed his hungry side for the title and really hyped up the Royal Rumble and how he is going to win and then go for the WWE title at Wrestlemania. This brought out Edge with just as much fire as HBK and Edge claimed he would be going to Wrestlemania and he would become champion for the third time. What a super opening by two very capable guys promoting Sunday’s show. But this was nothing compared to the brawl that Shawn got going. These two took it from outside of the ring, through the stands and finally backstage. The action was outstanding because they both seemed to be getting a few good shots in at each other. Edge and HBK in my opinion carried Raw and then there was one more wrestler that I would say was probably better last night than he’s been in a few years, and that’s Randy Orton. Orton came off so well as one very angry guy with a face covered in bruises from the attack he took last week from Michaels. He was so cold, and so intense that he finally looked like a top guy.
I thought his interaction with Edge before the Street Fight was very good. Let’s face it Edge had a lot of nerve asking for Orton’s help in the main event. Damn he’s such a good heel. As far as the main event goes, it was yes, OFF THE CHARTS. We got another pay per view match last night. Edge and Shawn killed themselves our there and some of Edge’s ladder bumps had me gasping. The ending was fantastic. Michaels was all set to give Edge the conchairto, but Randy Orton came out and RKO’d Shawn. Edge then got the pin and the win. Now come on didn’t you all see Randy turning on Edge when Orton helped Edge up? I saw it coming but watching Orton throw Edge over the rope was still fun to see. And the ending was just as cool as the match. I never expected to see Ric Flair come out to save Michaels from getting clocked by another chair shot from Randy Orton. Then you had Kenny throwing Orton over the rope, Carlito attacking Kenny, and HBK giving everyone left in the ring Sweet Chin Music. The Lafayette, La., crowd was so hot and into this main event and this ending just topped things off. After a very long night this main event not only woke me up but it made me so glad that I stayed with the show, not that I wasn’t going to, but I feel like I got a huge pay off thanks to this outstanding Street Fight and Randy Orton. Last week I praised Shawn Michaels for carrying Raw and last night not only did Shawn shine but so did Edge and Orton. This was one fabulous main event and one excellent ending.
Well I’m getting tons of email from you guys with many of you picking Taker for the Rumble win. I’m sticking with Shawn Michaels more than ever; the momentum is definitely with him. Sunday I will have my pay per view predictions. I can’t wait to see what Smackdown is going to give us to build up the pay per view even more. I’m going to leave you with two requests. A few years ago, I saw an ad in the WWE magazine for the guy who actually creates the WWE Title belts. Not the replicas, but the ACTUAL belts for the WWE. I remember you could order a real belt made specifically for you. They ran from like $3,200 for the women’s title, to $4,000 for either the World title, or the Smokin’ Skull belt. And all the other belts were priced somewhere in between those prices. Any info on this man would be greatly appreciated. Please email me at WWEfanAndrew@aol.com I am wandering if there is a place you can go to swap wrestling tapes like past Raw’s, SD’s, or Impacts. I record all the WWE and TNA shows each week and have since May 2004. I am missing a few key shows, like the RAW Homecoming on USA, and a few Smackdown’s. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. You can email me at whitemorpheus@charter.net.
Email lindaorbin3@yahoo.com
