This is going to be a very weird column today. I was hit with a sinus infection/bronchitis Sunday night, and as the week went on I got worse. I finally saw a doctor and got medication and today is the first day that I really feel like myself. Also I really wanted to avoid this subject but because things are getting very difficult and they change day to day it’s only fair that I keep you posted. I might not be around on a regular basis for a while. Hopefully that won’t happen but my brother and I are going through a lot with my father. Mentally as well as physically things are not good. It’s been very tough the past 5 weeks dealing with all of this. He has been in and out of the hospital, and it’s been a living hell with him. He refuses to eat and take medicine and he cannot be reasoned with well you can’t even talk to him. This is a real nightmare. I never know what the day is going to bring. So if you see my column missing it will be because of what’s going on with my father. I was going to hold off and talk about Smackdown this week, but since I’m feeling so well I would like to talk about Monday’s Raw. I liked the show so much that I wanted to talk about it.
Well my heart was broken when Hunter did not show up on Raw this week. However, I had read well in advance that he would be held off until Summer Slam so my heart mended pretty damn fast when Vince and Stephanie kicked off Raw. I thought this show was a lot of fun and better then the show the week before. I’ll tell you why I like this illegitimate McMahon kid angle. This Vince McMahon is such a pleasure to watch. He’s not over doing it by hogging TV time, and what’s even better is that he’s not over acting and playing the character he played leading up to his fake death. I have totally enjoyed watching Vince the last two weeks. He has brought a nice subtle type of humor to this storyline. And no matter how ridiculous this storyline is too many of my readers I am just fine with the way it’s been going. I can only hope that creative and Vince don’t wreck a good thing.
The first match of the night was Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy vs. Sandman. While I am very happy that Kennedy is now going to get the push that I think he deserves, it kind of bothered me that Sandman was used as nothing more than a jobber. Look I know that Sandman on Raw isn’t a great thing because the man was made for the original ECW, but at least with his mini feud against Carlito, the booking made Sandman look credible. That was kind of washed away after this match with Kennedy. I want to see what they now do with Sandman after this. But as I said I’m very happy that Kennedy the rumored illegitimate McMahon son will start making his move as one of the top guys on Raw. I think the fans are just ready for a Mr. Kennedy push. I thought the backstage segments with Coach trying to figure out who the McMahon child is by asking Vince a lot of personal questions was good, because as I said earlier it’s all being done for fun and it’s working with me.
I wasn’t a big fan of the Dating Game a week ago but I kind of liked the WWE Idol game. As I said last week I really believe for now Vince McMahon wants to keep things nice and pleasant. It’s like WWE wants to get the fans back into the show on an upbeat note since the summer has been anything but upbeat for WWE and the fans. William Regal was on his game imitating Simon Cowell. Maria was Maria, meaning she did her job well, and even though Mick Foley didn’t do much it was nice that they brought him in as a judge. I will say that Santino Marella is a riot on the mic. He’s like that little kid that thinks he’s insulting you and hurting your feelings with his one liners. His line to Lillian Garcia about Time Square is missing a badly dressed prostitute had me laughing. He delivers the lines so seriously that you can not help but enjoy what comes out of his mouth.
And just like Idol was better than the Dating Game, Cryme Tyme‘s segment was much better than what we saw a few weeks ago. Their match against Cade/Murdoch was okay, no it was anything outstanding, but it was good for what it was. But this time their bidding war for Lillian’s chair was enjoyable. It wasn’t dragged out and the crowd was really into the whole thing. By the way the MSG crowd was excellent like they usually are. Now back to Cryme Tyme. How I wish that Vince would give Cryme Tyme a chance because they are just loaded with ENERGY, and I really believe the fans would really pop for Shad and JTG. Hey I didn’t bother watching Snitzky a week ago squash Rory from the Highlanders, so naturally I didn’t even look up when he came out to squash Robbie. I just have no desire to watch Snitzky, and I really wish they would have given us a women’s match instead of a Snitzky squash. A match that I liked very much but totally bombed with the crowd was Cody Rhodes vs. Charlie Haas. I think many of you know that I have always been a Haas fan so it bugs me that he they don’t give him at least a mild push. Then you have Shelton Benjamin with so much talent out there for Haas, and not in any feud. Talk about wasting a talent. Cody has shown me a lot in the ring and I just feel bad that because of the lack of push of Haas this match did nothing for the crowd.
Okay so I knew that Hunter wasn’t going to be there, but how many in the crowd knew that? I don’t think many. I really did feel bad for this group when the King Booker coronation took place with Jerome Lawler. I thought Booker was a riot and when that video of Hunter came on the screen and the crowd erupted I kind of figured they thought he was coming out. Even though Triple H wasn’t there he got a massive pop and once the crowd realized what was going on the crowd then booed heavily. But I liked the way Booker and Lawler handled things. They were able to get the crowd back into the Booker/Lawler feud and they seemed to really get into it when Booker attacked Lawler. Having Triple H there I feel would have been the thing to do with only one Raw left after this show, but Book and Lawler managed to make this a nice segment.
I liked how throughout the show they showed videos of Randy Orton’s past attacks on Shawn Michaels, RVD, Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter. These violent attacks just put the emphasis on just what Orton will do to win. And if he could “injure” these guys so badly in title less matches, then what is he capable of doing to John Cena to with the WWE title? Ah that is the question. I thought the main event with Cena and Umaga vs. Carlito and Orton was a very good match. It was fast paced and never dull. Umaga and the Garden crowd seemed to take to each other very well. The main event as I like to say really topped off a good show. I think at Summer Slam Carlito vs. Umaga will take place. I won’t lie to you I miss Jeff Hardy very much and supposedly he was going to beat Umaga for the IC title, but what can you do. Carlito now is in that spot and hopefully if they do have a match it will come off well.
Maybe because things here are rather bad, I need to be entertained. And Raw did that for me. The humor wasn’t over done and I like the path Raw is taking so far. I am looking forward to Smackdown and as I said I am hoping to have a column about the show, but if I don’t then you know things here are not too good here. Thank you all for putting up with more of my problems, and to my webmasters that I work for I apologize if I’m not as consistent as I would like to be. Hopefully things will get back to some kind of normal it’s just I don’t know when.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
