Here’s the deal. I wasn’t exactly blown away by this week’s Raw. I don’t know what I was expecting, but obviously my expectations were a little too high because the show was nothing more than average for me. Maybe with the Survivor Series just days away I thought Raw would hit a homerun and give us a hell of a show, but that totally didn’t happen. Well let me get into my thoughts on this average Raw, the last Raw before a major pay per view.
Maybe I’m just a little too harsh about my statement that I thought more would be done to build up the Survivor Series. I say this because Raw surprised us by opening the show with Smackdown’s Batista and The Undertaker taking on Cade and Murdoch. And this was a nice change of pace and it made me feel like this was going to be a special show, of course that wasn’t the case, but at the time that’s what hit me. Batista and Taker defeated Cade and Murdoch. The match itself I didn’t care for, because it was the first of many squashes of the night. What I liked was the nice job both men did by heating their feud up and setting up their Hell In A Cell match on Sunday. There were only a few segments that appealed to the Topeka, Kansas crowd and this was one of those segments. The crowd was extremely dead through most of the show. Of course the next match which was the Beth Phoenix squash over Maria got very little reaction and I can’t say that I blamed the crowd at all.
As I said last week, I get that the Glamazon is not only unbeatable but TOUGH, very tough. So week after week now we get these things called matches. And throwing Maria or Kelly Kelly against Phoenix kind of leaves me cold. With Candice out of action for now, I wish Mickie James was facing Phoenix; at least we might get some decent wrestling for a change. So this was the first segment that did nothing for me. But Santino Marella got me right back into the show with his “shtick.” For now I can honestly say if he never wrestled again I wouldn’t mind, because his mic work and his actions have been a blast to watch. Things got funny immediately after poor Maria was down on the mat after taking the Glamazon’s finishing move. Maria’s boyfriend Santino came out walked right past Maria and told us very calmly don’t worry she’ll be okay. And then Santino continued to insult Stone Cold and then he picked another victim, JR. since JR is close friends with Austin. Santino decided to insult the hell out of JR. And it was Jerry The King Lawler that stood up for JR and pissed off Santino. The best part of all of this was after Marella insisted that Lawler take a swing at him, and the King did and knocked Marella down, Santino walked up the ramp, angry as hell and said Jerry Stupid Lawler you will pay for this. Well the stupid part had me in hysterics, I have been saying for a while that Marella comes off like a spoiled kid and that’s exactly how he came off when he called Lawler that. This was one of my favorite segments of the show.
I guess my match of the night would have to be the six man tag team match with Rey Mysterio, Jeff and Matt Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy….Finlay and MVP. This was a good action filled match and the first match of the night that didn’t end in 2:00 minutes and the first match of the night which wasn’t the ever famous squash match. Everyone looked very good during this one and I have to say I like the whole idea of having the Smackdown guys like Batista, Taker, Finlay and Mysterio on Raw and just like the opening segment this was another segment that the crowd seemed to enjoy. Hey did you know that next Monday Chris Jericho RETURNS? The Save Us video pretty much made that all clear. I know I can’t wait to see this guy return.
The next segment was Vince McMahon moderating a face off between Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels. I had mixed feelings about this segment. First of all, I was afraid that Vince McMahon would dominate the segment, but he didn’t. In fact he really didn’t do much at all so I don’t get why he was out there. Second, you all know that I am quite pleased with Randy Orton in and out of the ring, but this week he did a poor job on the mic interacting with HBK. I wanted to see Orton react and respond to HBK like he cared, you know with a lot of passion. But it was like he was just reciting the lines and nothing more. And Shawn had some good lines but it was toward the end of his promo that I really could get into it. As I said Vince didn’t offer much during all of this so I guess that really was a good thing, but it was Shawn and Randy going at it towards the end that worked so well for me. And for a change Orton got the best of Shawn and because of that, this turned out to be a good segment.
Layla, Jillian Hall, & Melina vs. Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, & Michelle McCool was next and it was okay, but nothing out of this world. However I will add that Kelly Kelly looks totally out of place when it comes to putting her in a match. I took a nice snack break when I saw in big letters SNITZKY. I hope I don’t put any extra weight on because as long as Vince is going to continue to push this guy I will be using his segments to make myself a nice healthy or non healthy snack. Things continue to go downhill with the Marella vs. Lawler match. Let’s see Santino jobbed to Lawler and I hope that’s the last time we see Lawler in the ring for a while. And the crap kept coming when we had to sit through a meaningless, and to use Santino Marella’s word, STUPID un-funny segment with Coach dressed and Khali and William Regal giving tips to Hornswoggle how to defeat him. This stunk, and you want to talk about dropping the ball? They dropped it like a bomb with the illegitimate McMahon angle. It’s gone from bad to worse. I would like to say that things picked up with Hunter’s interview about the Survivor Series match, but everything that he said he has said before, so there was nothing groundbreaking with this backstage interview at all.
The main event which was supposed to be Kennedy vs. Hunter in a Lumberjack match was switched to Umaga vs. Hunter and between you and me I didn’t need that. First of all Lumberjack matches usually prove to be nothing exceptional as this one was no exception. Second I think I have had my fill of one on one matches between Triple H and Umaga. Now don’t get me wrong these two worked hard but it we have seen it all before. And then only Hunter got beaten up once maybe twice by the heel Lumberjacks, Finlay, MVP, Kennedy and Big Daddy V. The face Lumberjacks, Jeff and Matt Hardy, Mysterio and Kane really did nothing and all in all this main event which wasn’t main event-worthy. The only bright spot was at the very end when all hell broke loose and the heels and faces went after each other. Unfortunately we were only given a few seconds of this, I would have had this go on for a while, but then again who am I?
So as you can see it was a fair Raw, and nothing more. I will be back over the weekend with my Survivor Series predictions and I need Smackdown to get me back in the SS mode, because Raw kind of took me out of it. So keep your predictions coming in and I will leave you with the following from one of my readers. Hey Linda I am looking for a T-shirt to buy. I am looking for the Rock’s white Just Bring It shirt in a size medium. If anybody has one or knows were I can find one for sale please email me at marky_wwe@hotmail.com.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
