If it wasn’t for Raw’s opening match on Monday night, I would have to say that the first hour of Raw stunk. Gee I wonder why I feel that way. Maybe it’s because the first hour of Raw was Vince, Vince and more Vince. Trust me I’ll get into that, and I will also get into the rest of the show, a show that disappointed me in many ways, yet there were some bright spots on this show as well. But let me start off with McMahon and the other downers that didn’t sit well with me and then I promise I will end on a very positive note.
Last year it was Vince and Shane taking on Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania. And I remember very clearly how Vince and Shane made this a top angle. But I guess I could live with it because one of the best all around performers in the business, HBK was involved. But this time, I’m so sick of where this Hair vs. Hair thing is going. I guess I could do a whole column just about this angle, but I won’t. I’ll try to just keep this short but to the point. I have no problem with Vince being a part of Wrestlemania. I don’t even have a problem with Donald Trump in this as well, but when Trump has only showed up live once and Vince McMahon has taken over the shows that’s where I draw the line. Vince has not only been on Raw, but he’s made two appearances on Smackdown and has become a regular on ECW. This is reason enough for me to feel the way I do. It’s typical Vince McMahon. Instead of McMahon playing a small role in Wrestlemania, he’s doing the usual, Vince’s feud IS the pay per view and all the other feuds are playing supporting roles.
I have to say that Steve Austin at least helped when he was introduced as the special guest ref. That’s because Vince is so much better when he plays the coward and let’s face it Austin and Vince have always had super chemistry together. Without a doubt Austin at least ended the Vince show on a very positive note. Now back to this McMahon/Trump feud. I’m slowly learning that Lashley has to keep putting on extreme matches like he has been doing in ECW. A regular one on one match against Umaga isn’t going to cut it. The more “out” there Lashley is the better the match will be against Umaga. And speaking of Umaga, I could not understand why Jeff Hardy had to again lose to him the same way that he lost to him last week. This made no sense to me at all. All right I will now move to another segment that was just a time waster, and that would be the Masterlock challenge with Hacksaw Duggan. I left the room to make popcorn I figured hell I won’t be missing anything. I would like to know when they are going to stop this gimmick. You think it would have ended a long time ago.
Now I totally enjoyed Carlito vs. Ric Flair for the qualifying MIB match. In fact I thought it was a very solid match until Khali came out and interfered. I understand that Khali wants Kane and that’s cool, but to have him wreck this match got to me. Of course the rumor is that Randy Orton will be in the MIB match and if you go to WWE.com it’s all set for Monday night, Orton vs. Flair vs. Carlito to qualify for the match. So I think it’s safe to say that Orton will win and because of that Khali was used to keep Carlito or Flair from winning. I guess I feel that they could have done something better than bringing Khali out. These were the segments that I really didn’t like. But it was the opening match, the match of the night with Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton that really put a smile on my face. Orton and Michaels looked outstanding during this match. And I really thought that Raw would be another fabulous show because of the opener but that wasn’t the case. I also thought this match gave us some more insight into the whole Cena/HBK feud. I saw a little more heel in Shawn when he became quite angry with Cena for helping him when Edge and Orton started to attack him. Oh yeah Shawn wasn’t pleased with that. And we would get even more insight later on during the main event.
The women’s match with Melina vs. Mickie was good; I liked this one a lot. I knew Mickie wasn’t getting that title back but I was very pleased with what I saw here. I was also VERY concerned when Mickie took that fall and hit her head. I was really worried about that fall she took. According to reports she received a stinger and she should be okay.
And I thought the main event was good. It definitely wasn’t great and I’ll tell you why.
By the time this match hit I was bored and tired. And with MNM coming out and Nitro replacing Edge I found myself wondering what is the reason for this? It certainly wasn’t the stupid excuse Edge gave us about Phoenix being the last state to recognize Martin Luther King’s birthday and because of that and since he’s not a bigot, Nitro whose great great grandmother was African American would take his place. Oh yeah this is the creative team at its best, what crap. So anyway with that kind of reasoning and a show that had more downs then ups I was a little tired at this point. However, after the match when HBK ran out and then stopped and watched Cena taking a beating from MNM and Edge is when things picked up for me. The Phoenix crowd booed Shawn for not helping his tag team buddy, and then after hesitating a few times, Michaels did come to Cena’s rescue by taking out MNM. The show then ended with Shawn walking away with no expression on his face and Cena staring at Shawn looking quite puzzled. This is the feud that I’m interested in and even though there isn’t as much focus on these two like their should be creative at least is doing something right when it comes to John Cena and Shawn Michaels.
Now just a few other things I quickly want to say about Raw. I’m at the point where I don’t need to see Mick Foley anymore. He’s out there to plug his book and while this man has given us so many terrific matches, plugging his books has never been something that I have enjoyed. I found that the fans were okay when he came out but they didn’t exactly go over board for him. It was nice to see Eric Bischoff come out and let his home town crowd cheer for him. And I’m glad that Bisch let Vince have it for a change. And finally as I said the crowd seemed very into Steve Austin and I’m hoping that Austin will be the guy that helps make this Lashley vs. Umaga match worth viewing at Wrestlemania. So I might not have been too favorable with today’s thoughts but every show can’t be off the charts.
I am looking forward to Smackdown on Friday night. And like usual I read the spoilers and again the show sounds good. I will be back over the weekend with my Smackdown thoughts and I’m kind of proud of myself because something that I saw happening weeks ago will supposedly happen on Smackdown soon so I’ll talk about that as well.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
