Linda’s Thoughts – Raw/Now I Get It

I was all set to rip Raw. I mean I was never as confused as I was last night watching that show. It was like all of the good that was done the week before in setting up new feuds for Summer Slam was taken away. As I said I was confused and definitely angry after what Vince gave us. Ah but, everything changed today and now I understand why Raw was done the way it was. Let me list everything that totally threw me off and then I’ll share with you what I’m reading was the reason for this. But first I have to say with such a weird show the Tucson, Arizona crowd was really good. They seemed be enjoying most of the show and trust me there was so little to enjoy that I was very proud of them.

Okay let me start with the opening and Carlito and Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy interacting with John Cena. Last week Carlito and Bobby Lashley got things going for their feud and last night Carlito is claiming that he should be the number one contender. And then he brought back his Carlito Cabana show which I was glad to see return, but Mr. Kennedy came out and wanted the title shot with Cena. So I’m starting to feel like I’m watching the Twilight Zone. And then Cena takes it upon himself to make a Mr. Kennedy vs. Bobby Lashley match and then a Cena vs. Carlito match. Now why is Kennedy facing Carlito? Why is Carlito taking on Cena? And why didn’t Coach stop Cena from making matches? Okay that last one I just threw in. But the matches definitely made me wonder what the hell was going on.

And then Santino Marella has another very short match with Umaga. So I’m thinking that Jeff Hardy is going to do a run in, but the match goes on without Hardy, and again my brain is getting very nervous, it’s saying to me “what happened to the Summer Slam match?” Oh yeah I’m having a rough time with these changes. Okay so then we have Kennedy vs. Lashley and finally one thing hits me. After watching Kennedy take out Lashley I am now thinking that Lashley is injured and this is going to be how they get Lashley off TV. And I am telling you the truth because during commercials I emailed my friend and I would tell her I think he’s hurt, there’s no other explanation for this. But remember at the time it was something that I wasn’t sure about, so the Kennedy win over Lashley was something I didn’t expect.

I had a problem with Randy Orton having to work a match with Sgt. Slaughter. It’s just another segment that in my opinion was thrown together at the last minute. And you can add the Cryme Tyme match to that list. And with Carlito beating Cena, then spitting on Cena with his apple and the camera’s focusing on Carlito and Cena, it looked to me that Carlito would be added to the Orton/Cena match at Summer Slam. Everything that we got on Raw with the exception of the Women’s match, Cody Rhodes vs. Daivari, and Booker vs. Lawler made no sense at all. The show looked like Vince and Stephanie went home early and someone on the staff wanted to put on a two hour show and it didn’t matter what that two hour show consisted of. Oh yes Raw was a very unorganized and odd show. But after WWE.com put up an item about Lashley being hurt and going to see Dr. Andrews tomorrow, and then listening to a hotline report, the show now made plenty of sense to me.

Yes Lashley is hurt and maybe out of action for a while. And the hotline report that I listened too talked about how Jeff Hardy was not at Raw last night. He called to let them know he wouldn’t be there but no other details were given. There’s a chance according to this report that Jeff will not be at Summer Slam and because of this Umaga might be turned into a baby-face and defend his I.C. title against Carlito and Kennedy. So that explained why Umaga faced off with Santino, Santino the complainer. I guess that WWE had to do a lot of rewriting last night because of Bobby and Jeff. For me to complain about the show now just seems so petty. They did what they could with what little time they had.
I am hoping that Jeff Hardy will be back and that whatever is going on is just a temporary thing. He has brought so much to Raw that I would really hate to lose him. I was looking forward to Carlito vs. Lashley as you know but hopefully Lashley won’t be out too long. I guess WWE.com will update his condition tomorrow. And while things were not very good last night, I did like the women’s match very much, Cody Rhodes and Daivari wrestled a nice solid match and Randy Orton looked damn good out there again with his facial expressions. I was also very pleased with the Booker vs. Jerry the King Lawler match. I really didn’t expect much and it turned out to be a good match that told a very good story and that story is that Triple H is on his way back.

Okay so let’s see how Smackdown comes off Friday night. I will be back with a column over the weekend and I would like to leave you with two requests from two of my readers. I was wondering if one of your readers could find that Candice Michelle song without any background noise. You can email me at agentbigdave@hotmail.com. And my reader Teddy would like to know the following. Is there anyone out there that either has or can make me a Best of Sting DVD or a set? He is my favorite WCW wrestler of all time so I would like a collection of his best matches. I only want the really good stuff though, his matches from the 80’s up until the run with the Wolf-pak. If they can add some of the promos he did, that would be great as well. I don’t want anything after the Wolfpak really because that is when WCW started going downhill and I don’t want TNA sting. I appreciate the help. You can email me at wpac4e@yahoo.com.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com