I would say about 5 minutes after Raw ended last night I found myself getting not one, not two but 16 emails all with the same theme, RAW was crap. I could not believe how many of my readers had the same opinion about what they saw. And today I’m still getting the anti Raw feedback, so I think it’s safe to say that most of you were anything but pleased by what we got last night. Now this will shock you, but while I didn’t love the show, I didn’t hate it. Oh don’t get me wrong there were plenty of things that I didn’t like but a few things that I did like and I guess along with the stars of the show, the Milan, Italy crowd I was in the middle about the show. Let me tell you what I liked, because there wasn’t much and the negative segments are going to take more time, and once you read this you’re going to wonder why I still didn’t despise the show.
The match of the night for me was Carlito and Ric Flair vs. WGTT, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Carlito again was aggressive in the ring and worked his ass off, and you know how much I love watching Haas and Benjamin together. Ric did what Ric needed to do and this was entertaining and just like last week, I am still very much interested in the buildup for Carlito and Ric Flair’s upcoming feud. You know we are all seeing Carlito play the heel role these past two weeks because the WGTT have defeated Flair and Carlito two weeks in a row, but I’m still wondering when it’s all said and done if it will be Ric that makes the complete turn and really goes after his friend.
Jeff Hardy vs. Garrison Cade was a good match; it was a hard worked match. I was a Garrison Cade fan a few years ago when he teamed up with Mark Jindrak. I thought these two guys were very good together, and then once Cade came back and teamed with Murdoch I can’t say that I have been much of a Cade fan. There’s no doubt in my mind that the man can wrestle, because he can, but I need to see him lose Murdoch and more importantly I need to see creative make something out of him so that when he’s out there I will want to watch him. I was only interested in watching Jeff during this match. Now the main event with John Cena vs. RKO was good but I will get into that match at the end of my column.
The opening segment was not only too long but too Vince for my liking. Vince has lost his touch when it comes to doing promos. You know I always praise the man when he interacts with an “enemy” and he plays the straight man role which in turn makes Vince a good comic, but when he just comes out and talks for more than I would say 8 minutes we are all in trouble. This man last night just rambled on that I don’t even know what the hell he was talking about. But I did fine one bright spot during this and that was the debut of a new character, Santino Marella. I thought this guy was really good as he walked into the ring and he came off so sweet and naïve. There was a very good vibe with Marella, and while some of this played out rather silly, all in all I liked Marella a lot. What I didn’t care for was how this guy with “no” wrestling experience could not only stand on his own two feet after being beaten up by Umaga, but he stood up and moved around like nothing at all happened. What a wonderful way to put Umaga over as a monster. As far as giving the IC title to Marella? At first I wasn’t happy about it because it’s like making nothing out of the title, but after a good night’s sleep I figured Umaga did nothing with it and I’m sure someone will win it back from Marella very soon, so honestly I’m fine with the new IC champion, well at least for now I am. It’s just ashame that Vince took so long to say nothing and have the segment last 20 minutes when all of this could have been done in half the time.
I was thrilled to see Johnny Nitro back on Raw, but at the same time his match against Eugene did nothing for me as did giving us Chris Masters vs. Super Crazy. In my opinion Masters is done and I have a problem throwing him on Raw week after week, if Vince wants to keep him then stick him on Heat. The fashion show with Maria, Torrie, Melina, Mickey and Candice was just filler and while the whole thing with the attack really fell flat, I saw it as a way to give the Milan fans especially the males in attendance a chance to see some of WWE’s hot divas. I was getting a kick out of seeing some of their expressions when the women came out. Finally as I said the main event was good, but what I didn’t like was the BS that Lawler and JR were giving us about the bad reaction that Cena was getting from that very lively Milan crowd. Listen I figured Cena would get nothing but pops and loud ones last night, so when the boos started and kept on going I was totally surprised. I just hated hearing excuses made by the King and JR while the RKO chants and Cena Suck chants were going on. You know I told many of my readers my thoughts on this situation last night and I will share them with you now. I said this last year when Cena was getting booed week after week, turn the man heel. And I say more than ever he needs to be a heel and it needs to happen NOW. And with a heel turn have Cena each week blast the crowd for the way he’s been treated. If Vince continues to keep Cena a face then I say they need to just ignore the negativity from the crowd. Having Lawler and JR come up with ridiculous statements to try to cover all of this up is just obnoxious.
I want to say right now that I am not against Cena; I am not blaming Cena for any of this. This blame falls on Vince McMahon. I understand Cena is a merchandise God but I’m tired of having Cena come out and smile when the crowd is against him. A bad ass Cena would be such a nice change of pace. Also I just want to throw this in. I look at RKO, Randy Orton and Edge as two rotten SOB’s, but last night I was waiting for them to share a great big passionate kiss. I thought it was just dumb to have these two guys backstage talking about how happy they are to be a team. To hear Edge you know the guy that comes off as one of the best uncaring heels in the business look at Randy and say you are the best partner I have ever had made me cringe. And then to have Orton respond very sweetly and say bro I feel the same way made me wonder who writes this stuff?
So it wasn’t the best Raw, and with all my negativity that I wrote about I still didn’t hate it. See sometimes I shock myself with my logic. Okay, I am looking forward to a better Smackdown and maybe just maybe next week in London with a HBK vs. Cena rematch we will get a much better Raw. I’ll be back with a Smackdown column and if I can I will try to do a rumor column before the weekend.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
