After watching Raw Monday night two things hit me immediately. So instead of talking about Raw in it’s entirety I would like to talk about those two issues, but I first would like to say a few words about Cyber Sunday, so I will start with the pay per view and then on to Raw. By the way I didn’t do too badly with my Cyber Sunday picks. Let’s see I missed Shawn Michaels winning on a NO DQ, and I went with Torrie instead of Mickie, and by the way Mickie looked damn good.
The feedback that I got from so many of you that watched Cyber Sunday was for the most part very favorable. Many of you really liked the show, a lot of you thought it was good and a few thought it was fair to bad. But on many of the sites Cyber Sunday got bashed pretty badly. Well I’m one of the fans that liked the show very much. In fact I’m glad that I ordered it. The opening match with Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay came off well. I was hoping for the No DQ match, but the Stretcher match got the majority of the votes, and thankfully both men did a very good job making the gimmick work and getting the show off to a good start. The fans pulled a good one with the next match. They put the Miz in his first title match against CM Punk. You know I could say I didn’t see this coming, but in a way this wasn’t a big shock to me. The match was okay, but it certainly wasn’t a match that you would want to see on a pay per view. This would have come off a lot better if this was on ECW.
Something that totally surprised me was not that Shawn Michaels won with the most votes and would be facing Randy Orton. I was so surprised that Shawn beat Jeff Hardy by such a large margin; I didn’t see that one coming. And because Shawn was going on to face Orton, the next match was Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy. Now these two men have had some excellent matches, but this one wasn’t one of them. Just like Punk’s and The Miz’s match this match was a Raw match, not a pay per view quality match. I didn’t see the strong chemistry that these guys have had in the past. This wasn’t a horrible match, just an average one. The worst match of the night and trust me it wasn’t even close was MVP vs. Kane. Earlier in the show we got the word that Matt Hardy was not able to wrestle because of the stitches that he took from Rey Mysterio on the last Smackdown before Cyber Sunday. So Matt was out, but MVP wasn’t so lucky. He had to put his U.S. title on the line against Khali, Mark Henry or Kane. And the fan’s voted for Kane. Unfortunately this match was a total dud. And with that let me go right to the WWE title match with Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton.
I liked this match very much. Orton and HBK did a terrific job, and for those on the net that commented that HBK looked a little off, or rusty I would say not in my opinion. I thought Michaels worked his ass off from beginning to end and Orton did an excellent job throughout as well. I was very happy with this match until the lame ending, the famous NO DQ ending. This couldn’t have come at a worse time, because the flow of this match was going so well and it was like someone snapped their fingers and things just fell apart. I felt bad for all of us and the live Washington, DC crowd for having such a miserable ending. I guess the only positive after the ending was that HBK tuned up the band and hit Orton with Sweet Chin Music; at least the super kick brought the crowd back.
I might have made their match my match of the night had it not been for the ending, but fortunately the next match on the card, Umaga vs. triple H got that nod. This match was outstanding. I said in my column Sunday that Triple H and Umaga continuously got rave reviews during their European house shows and Sunday I got to see just what so many over seas were raving about. While many of the fans in the arena seemed a little bummed that The Cage Match lost to A Street Fight, this Street Fight was just what I wanted to see.
Hunter took some major bumps and in my books he never looked sharper, and Umaga stayed right with Hunter and the one move where Umaga ran from one announce table to another only to land on top of Hunter causing the table to break was one hell of a cool move. This baby had a lot of action, maybe no one was bleeding, but there was enough going on to make this one very good match. And finally the main event with Undertaker vs. Batista also turned out very well. This is the match that seems to be what the majority of the fans around the net picked as the Match of the Night. While this match was done well, it took some time to really let loose. But once this thing got started it was good because there were so many near falls there was no way to really know which guy would leave World Champion. I liked this match and I’m happy to say that the chemistry between Batista and Taker is still there and I can’t wait to see their rematch at the Survivor Series.
Let me now move from the pay per view and on to Raw and the main event with Hunter vs. Orton and Umaga in a Handicap Match. I thought this match was a let down, but I realized the match was only made so that Shawn Michaels could come out and help Hunter, and then Vince McMahon could make the one night only return of DX for next week. Now I’m a Triple H mark as you all know, a Shawn Michaels lover and a huge DX fan, but the announcement made by Vince, did nothing for me. Sure DX has been on hold for 10 months but I guess you could say that I am really enjoying Hunter and Shawn remaining faces but working solo. I liked Raw well most of it, but the main event left me cold. Now the only way I can let the main event slide and get excited about next week’s DX appearance is, if THE HEARTBREAK KID does a heel turn, then I will be quite happy. I figure there’s a chance of that happening because of the interaction between Shawn and Vince at the beginning of Raw and then the way Vince at the end told William Regal things turn out the way he wants them too. It makes me really believe we are going to get a McMahon/Michaels alliance and that I could live with very easily.
And finally I just want to give you my thoughts on this whole Chris Jericho situation. I have to admit I was a little pissed off that Jericho wasn’t on Raw. But just like No Mercy and Cyber Sunday, WWE never EVER advertised him. All the rumors about Y2J showing up on this show and that show came from the main sites, not WWE. While I wish WWE would have started the ads for Jericho after No Mercy, I don’t hold them responsible or feel any anger toward the company for Jericho not showing up yet. My thoughts are that the ads have been going on too long and the thrill is kind of going. Now don’t get me wrong, when Jericho’s music hits and he’s on finally appears trust me I will be ecstatic, but the campaign to get us ready for Chris Jericho started just a little too soon.
I want to leave you with something that made me happy and so proud to be a wrestling fan today. I was at work, and one of my customers came in and she was wearing a No Mercy tee shirt. I think she was around 20 years old, and I asked her if she was a WWE fan. I asked because she could have just borrowed the shirt. With a big smile she said she was and then I asked her if she went to No Mercy. She was there and she was so proud to tell me that she took her 14 year old brother with her. I told her I was there too and that I try to go to the live events when they come out this way. Well she was like so surprised and thrilled and we started talking. I found out that her favorite is Stone Cold and I told her mine is yes, Triple H and I was waiting for her to say, oh I can’t stand him, but she said he was her second favorite. See I knew I liked this girl a lot. I had the time of my life talking with her since it’s VERY rare to talk to any wrestling fan at work. She made my day and I couldn’t wait to tell this to all of you. Okay I won’t have a column over the weekend because I won’t be around too much on Saturday and Sunday. But I will return next week with my Raw thoughts, and who knows maybe my Raw AND Jericho thoughts.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
