With all the suspensions in the WWE I thought Monday’s Raw fantastic. I absolutely loved the entire show. This show had such a good feeling to it and a feeling I guess I didn’t expect to feel with all that’s been going on within the company. This was a five star Raw and before I talk about Raw I want to start off by telling all of you about a five star match that I watched on ECW last night. By the way from the feedback that I have been getting it seems like the majority of you also got to see this excellent match. So let me tell you about ECW’s top two guys putting on what I believe was their best TV match ever.
CM Punk is not only the new ECW champion, which I couldn’t be happier about, but along with John Morrison these two guys put on not only a five star match, but a match that would have been easily the match of the night on a pay per view. Everything clicked for this main event. The live Cincinnati crowd reacted just the way I hoped that they would. And by that I mean they were totally into the match, into CM and their reaction throughout this match was off the charts. Morrison and Punk equally shined last night and it’s just ashame that ECW will be without Morrison for the next 30 days. The way the crowd reacted to Punk’s victory gave me goose-bumps. Sure they had to take the title off of Morrison, yet that decision didn’t take a thing away from Punk becoming the new champion. I feel bad for you if you missed this match, because along with the booking, and the great crowd, Punk and Morrison pulled out all he stops to make this a top candidate for match of the year.
Okay as for Raw, I loved it. They did everything right as far as I’m concerned. Sure the last segment with the McMahon’s went on too long and it would have been better if it had been cut down, but other than that this was one hell of a show. The opening match between Umaga and Jeff Hardy came off well. Like Morrison, Umaga lost his IC title due to his name being on the list of guys that bought steroids from that online pharmacy. I mean I knew when this match was made Sunday night and posted on WWE.com that Jeff was going to win. I just hope that Jeff Hardy is done with his “problems.” Raw needs this guy to show up on a regular basis and just do what he does best, WRESTLE. I liked the match, but I was very surprised that Jeff pinned Umaga the way he did. There was no Hardy finishing move, just Hardy hitting the ropes and Umaga falling off of them and then the pin. I was fine with the way it ended just surprised.
Santino Marella had me laughing and I enjoyed him more than ever Monday night. I know many of you have emailed me wondering what I see in this guy, but as I say each week it’s the way he delivers his lines. When he came out with Maria and started bashing the crowd and then Sandman’s music hit, I got such a kick out of the way Marella wondered why he was coming to the ring. The whole thing with Santino on the mic was just hilarious to me. I guess it doesn’t take much to make me laugh but the guy has something, something that I could see make him a mouthpiece for a guy that doesn’t have the mic skills. He could be his manager; I have to say the two segments with Santino were a lot of fun. And it was nice that Ron Simmons was back with “damn” and not rhyming anymore. I thought the backstage segment with Melina telling William Regal about her time with Vince was good because Regal was getting rather turned off by what she was whispering. But what I liked even more was Stephanie ready to slap Melina but holding back to Melina’s delight only to have Melina turn and get slapped by Linda McMahon. And that’s when Simmons did the facials that I like and just said DAMN. This all worked well for me.
I might not be into Beth Phoenix’s bulky look, but I have to say that she did a smooth job on the mic. I also liked the way she took out Maria. I guess I would call her an Amazon, but we all know her as a Glamazon, and she made her match with Maria look nice, easy and effortless. She didn’t even break a sweat. I found this segment to be very affective as far as putting Phoenix over as a woman like no other, of course we saw this years ago with Chyna, the Chyna before cosmetic surgery, but I guess we are supposed to forget that and just look at her as something that we have never seen the likes of before. I am very interested in the upcoming Unforgiven match with Beth and Candice Michelle. Hopefully these two will work well together. So we had Umaga lose his title to Jeff Hardy and the next segment was a send off for another name on the list William Regal. Again I feel this segment was handled very well. Regal in the ring announcing that at Unforgiven we will get a Randy Orton vs. John Cena rematch. And Regal blaming John Cena for what Randy Orton did to Cena’s father was a great way to set up Regal’s time off. And what we got from that little promo was a no talking, no joking John Cena. And that’s the Cena that I like. He came out and attacked Regal. And this was no small attack. Cena punched Regal continuously and then had him on the announce table. And it all capped off with Cena doing the STFU on the Commissioner. Cena refused to let go of his hold and it all made for a nice way to get Regal out for 30 days. Along with a very intense and good promo from Randy Orton on the titan-tron, this was one very strong segment.
So one down and more to come. This time it was Charlie Haas getting pinned by Brian Kendrick during my match of the night. It was Haas and Shelton Benjamin vs. London and Kendrick with Cade and Murdoch sitting at the announce table. This was one was a high flying fast moving match, just my type. I’m sure most of you know that Cryme Tyme was released Monday because of some backstage argument having to do with lack of respect among other things between Cryme Tyme and Cade/Murdoch. I’m not happy with the release but I am hoping that this will not be permanent and that this was a way to show them “right from wrong,” when it comes to the business. So with these two guys out, we now have London/Kendrick up there and with Charlie on that list and pinned I’m sure he’s out now for 30 days. But all four men did a super job and Cade/Murdoch are back to being those caring and thoughtful guys that they were when they feuded with the Hardy’s. And I’m fine when they play these characters. So for me the match was outstanding and Cade/Murdoch were good too.
How funny was it to see Daivari and Jillian Hall tag teaming together, well wait that wasn’t funny, it was their the way they did a Grease duet. It wasn’t the signing that made me laugh it was their choreography, that was a riot. I knew Jillian’s face looked swollen and I was just about to tell my husband I bet she had teeth pulled when JR announced that’s just what happened to her. I could not get over how swollen her face was and I was surprised to see her in match against Mickie James and Cody Rhodes. Rhodes and Mickie also made a nice tag team duo. Rhodes and Daivari did a great job and this was another very good match, a really solid match. So it was two down with one more to go. Umaga and Carlito vs. Hunter did just what Cena’s segment did; it got Umaga out for the month. The crowd was really into Hunter and so was I; okay seriously it was great to hear the reaction he was getting. And the more he went after Umaga the more the crowd ate it up. The sledgehammer was icing on the cake and with Umaga out and Carlito getting out of the ring, it keeps the Carlito/Triple H feud going right into Unforgiven.
Finally we had all the McMahon’s come out to main event Raw. As I said this one went too long for me, and Shane seemed somewhat off, but there were some definite highlights for me while this was going on. Like Vince McMahon ready to show Stephanie a heartfelt video that he made for his little girl called a Father’s Love. A Fathers Love turned out to be Vince vs. Stephanie from 2003 at No Mercy with lovely sweet music to accompany the violent video. That alone had me laughing. And when the video was over and Vince wondered how that video showed up we see Hunter on the titan-tron again. And as serious and focused as he was during his match with Umaga and Carlito, the DX Hunter showed up and denied he switched videos. Again funny stuff. And then it dragged until Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy…..McMahon came out. He claimed to be Vince’s illegitimate son and hugged dad. But just as the fans were buying into it we got an attorney coming out and saying that Kennedy is not the son. So I guess you could say another guy is gone or is he? Let’s see there was no injury angle for Kennedy, Vince didn’t fire him on the spot for lying, so while I think Kennedy is out for 30 days this one I’m not totally sure about. Now this lawyer that came out and stated that Kennedy wasn’t the son said that next week we would find out. But he said he had a small clue, the clue is that things are looking up and with that Raw ended.
Now so many of you have asked me if I know who it is and I don’t, but you guys have come up with some interesting names that might be the illegitimate son, names like JBL, Shawn Michaels, HHH, Brock Lesnar, and so on. I re-watched what the attorney said last night on ECW and when he said a small clue or little clue I don’t quite remember what word he used and things are looking up; I’m starting to think it’s Hornswoggle. And I don’t think I would like that, but then again if it was played out for just a few “short” weeks I might be okay with it..
As you can see this was a fun Raw for me to watch and I’m looking forward to Smackdown Friday night. I am very excited because I got my No Mercy tickets today. The seats aren’t close but they aren’t bad at all so I can’t wait until October 7th. I want to leave you with a petition that one of my readers started to bring Cryme Tyme back. I signed it and maybe you will want to as well. I will be back over the weekend with my Smackdown thoughts. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/crymetyme/index.html
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
