Don’t worry I’m not going to blast Raw like I did last week. I thought the show thankfully was a lot better this week. While the show wasn’t flawless and trust me it wasn’t, I still found a lot of good segments on the show. So let me get right to Raw and then I want to end with last night’s ECW main event with Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley. But first the good and bad about Monday’s show.
I was totally thrilled the John Cena and Shawn Michaels opening. I want so much to see these two start going at each other. And even thought they physically didn’t get into it, at least verbally things took off. I was amazed to hear so many boos for John Cena with the Washington, D.C. crowd. It reminded me of last year at this time when Cena couldn’t seem to do anything right to win the crowd over. I don’t think the boos were as massive but they were loud. So with the boos and the tension between Michaels and Cena Raw started out of a very positive note. And the first match of the night, the qualifying MIB match with Randy Orton vs. Carlito vs. Ric Flair was great. I think most of us knew that Orton was going to win since that rumor has been out there for a long time, but it didn’t matter to me because I saw one very good match. Especially between Orton and Carlito.
Carlito has shown so much more aggressiveness since they got him involved in this Ric Flair angle. I am so happy to see this guy giving so much of himself in his matches. And watching Flair and Carlito somewhat turn on each I believe was the start of their feud for Wrestlemania. I would have to say this was my match of the night and even better was the fact that Vince McMahon hadn’t graced our television with his face, but that would change. So I’m happy with the way things are going until I see Chris Masters in the ring, and I know we are in for another lame Master Lock challenge. So this is my time to leave and go in the kitchen. I can hear Masters in that no charisma way he has challenge Lillian Garcia, so I’m looking extra hard for some kind of snack to make because I’m in no hurry to see any of this, but then I hear Super Crazy’s music hit and I immediately know that Crazy isn’t breaking the Master-Lock, so I just made one hell of a nice snack and waited to return once the segment was over with. It’s not bad enough that Vince and that creative team feel the need to bring this so called gimmick back, but just as bad as watching it week after week is having WWE.com this week giving you the Top 5 Master Lock moments, I didn’t know there was even one top moment. I think its time for me to move on.
The next two segments that I liked were out of ring segments. One was with the evil Edge interacting with his one time tag team partner Randy Orton. I really got into their little discussion about which one will win the MIB match. This was done very well and in my opinion Orton really came off strong with the way he took on Edge. This is a feud that will happen I believe after Wrestlemania and the way it started Monday night, it’s a feud that I cannot wait to see. Finally the Rock made his way back to Raw, granted he wasn’t there live, but what a nice surprise to see Rock back in character and the fans just going crazy for him. I thought he brought a nice touch to the show and to the Trump/McMahon match. What a way to get things back in a very upbeat way. The next match the ever famous Gauntlet match with Cena and HBK vs. The Worlds Greatest Tag Team, Cade and Murdoch and MNM for the Tag Team titles was a good match, but in the last 6 months we’ve seen this match done quite a bit with DX against TWGTT, Highlanders and Cade and Murdoch. But I did like the match and just like back in the summer each tag team that came out got squashed but I found it so funny that most of the feedback that I read on many of the sites didn’t complain about Cena ruining the tag team division. Yet when Triple H was taking part in squash matches against The Worlds Greatest Tag Team, Cade and Murdoch and The Highlanders, Hunter was constantly criticized for single handedly decimating the tag team division. Ah the old double standard. Anyway I wish we would have gotten something going between HBK and Cena after this match was over with. Sure we saw Cena holding a chair and HBK giving Cena a nasty stare but I would have loved to have seen so much more going on between these two guys.
Poor Jeff Hardy got brutalized by Khali. I say poor Jeff because Umaga took him out two weeks straight and now this, I don’t get it, but I’m hoping once Wrestlemania is over Jeff will be in a nice strong feud with a top tier guy. I was pleased with Torrie vs. Melina. While Torrie is no wrestler, she really tried and I thought both women did a good job. I can’t say the Ashley vs. Melina match at Wrestlemania is something I really care to see because like Torrie Ashley hasn’t got it in the ring, but maybe they can pull off a decent title match by then. Edge’s mind is always working and I thought it was great how he went to Vince and talked McMahon into putting Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley in the main event match at ECW. Edge wanted Vince to believe it was so Orton could take care of Lashley, and he was so sure that Orton could do it that he told Vince to take Orton’s MIB spot away if Randy lost. Again this was another very good segment with Edge.
And finally while Vince wasn’t on throughout the show I would have preferred this segment to be at the top of the hour and Cena and HBK to main event the show. I thought this segment went on a little too long, but I didn’t hate the segment. It was okay and just like with Rock’s appearance you could see that the fans were really into Steve Austin. I had to laugh when Trump kept calling Lashley Bobby and telling Booby that the fans love him and “do we love you Bobby.” Trump’s very calm demeanor had me laughing a lot. I thought Lashley had some good facials while looking at Vince and Umaga was Umaga a little out there. I really feel with Trump there live it added to this hair vs. hair thing, and Vince being pushed over the table was a nice way to end the show.
See I told you I would be a lot better with today’s column. The show was good not as good as so many of the Raw’s have been, but still very entertaining. Now I want to end with the main event I watched last night on ECW. And that would have been Orton vs. Lashley. This match was just about 20 minutes long. And because of it being that long it was a match that just came off pretty bad. I read one site where Randy Orton is getting blamed for this travesty. I just want to say I don’t see it that way at all. I think Orton worked very hard out there and so did Lashley. But I just wonder if 20 minutes for Lashley wasn’t like 10 minutes too long. Bobby as Trump would say has put on some really good extreme matches on ECW, but as far as one on one matches go I say he’s still kind of green and that putting him in such a long match just showed his weakness. Listen, that’s my thinking and I might be way off, but I certainly don’t see Orton as the guy that stunk up the match. And with that said I will let you go and I will be back over the weekend.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
