See what a trip overseas can do for Raw. What an improvement from last week’s show. Not only did I like the show a lot, but it seems like most of you guys did too. The feedback that I have gotten so far is all very positive. In fact last night the positive feedback started coming in immediately. What a difference a week makes and I want to give the London crowd props because they didn’t let me down. They were a very lively group that added to the show. So let me get right to one hell of a show.
Let’s start with William Regal taking a tea break and in pops Mr. Bad Attitude, JBL. Bradshaw got instant heel heat when the told Regal that he’s like Gordon Brown and the rest of the former empire that has become a toilet bowl, and then he called Regal a spineless puppet. Last night Regal was in his home country and Regal was definitely one of the top stars of the show. Regal didn’t take too kindly to JBL’s remarks or his attitude so Regal punished Bradshaw by putting JBL in the main event against Triple H. See I would say that it was Hunter that got the punishment but I’ll get to that at the end when I talk about that very main event. This was a nice way to get things started because JBL is a star on the mic, and Regal played a very capable GM last night, a face GM for his hometown crowd and this Raw opener was just the beginning of a very good night for William Regal.
Now the Regal/JBL segment was good, but the next non-wrestling segment was just excellent. Instead of Batista continuing going after Shawn Michaels in a non-physical way, Shawn Michaels had another guy to deal with and that was Chris Jericho. This was another outstanding segment dealing with Shawn again explaining the Ric Flair retirement match, but more importantly Shawn came out to explain the real reason why Batista is out to get him. And that reason is HBK himself. I loved the explanation by Michaels because it showed that Batista has major problems with the one time bad boy. I guess in Batista’s eyes Shawn never changed. So a good explanation but then all of a sudden Flair’s music played and believe me if I hadn’t read the spoilers I would have really thought Ric Flair was there. And I think the majority of the fans that were there thought that very same thing.
It wasn’t Ric it was Chris Jericho, and if last night didn’t make you feel that Jericho is making a heel turn then I don’t know what will. What better way to piss off the fans than by making it seem like Naitch returned. Jericho was on fire in this segment. He did nothing but put Michaels down, and Jericho was just eating this up. The tension between HBK and Jericho was great, and it took one more big insult to get Michaels to shut Y2J up. And that insult was, Jericho insinuating that HBK was the one that made the whole retirement stipulation. And with that, Michaels hit Jericho with Sweet Chin Music. Wow what a way to end this segment. Shawn Michaels did a great job here, but it was Chris Jericho that really made this baby HOT. I feel that this interaction between Michaels and Jericho really set the tone for the rest of the show. And I do mean it set a very good tone for the rest of the show. The first match was Carlito and Santino vs. London and Kendrick in a number 1 contenders match for the tag team titles. This match was one of the shorter matches of the night, BUT I’m happy to say that it came off very well. I thought this match had a lot of action going on. And it’s always a pleasure for me to watch London and Kendrick. They lost the match giving Carlito and Santino the win and the right to take on Bob Holly and Cody Rhodes for the tag team titles. And speaking of the current titleholders they were watching this match backstage on a monitor and I bet they were whispering it looks like our days our numbered. Okay seriously they were watching backstage, but I will leave the humor to Santino who came up with the joke of the night after the victory. He said that there are three keys to being World Tag champs: strength, agility, and being international superstars. He ended by saying that they are real wieners. And Carlito looked at him and said you mean winners, and Santino said yes, wieners. See it doesn’t take much to make me laugh. But this was a good match. Now the next match turned out to be one of my favorites of the night.
I’m talking about Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix. You know TNA has the Knockouts; they consist of some very qualified women that CAN wrestle. I’ve caught a few of Impact’s women’s matches and I have been very impressed by what I have seen. And many times when TNA puts on a pay per view, while the undercard is weak the women’s match always seems to get rave reviews. And because of that I have wondered how long it would take Vince McMahon to realize that there are fans that want to see women wrestle solid matches. Then again, it also hit me that maybe Vince could care less because he’s all about eye candy. Well I’m staring to think with Smackdown bringing in Natalya Neidhart and showcasing more matches than before, and with last night’s match, Vince is REALIZING that the fans need more than just a pretty face. Last night Mickie vs. Beth Phoenix was one of the best women’s matches that I have seen in a while. Mickie totally brought the best out in Beth and they each worked a very hard match. I loved what I was watching and yes, I was thrilled that Mickie won, thrilled and surprised since Mickie hasn’t been on TV very much lately.
I have to give both women nothing but credit. I was also very happy with the way that Ashley and Maria congratulated and celebrated with Mickie. And the celebration continued when Raw returned from the commercial break. This was just another one of Raw’s top segments of the night. Okay now we got more of Regal shining last night. This time he was warming up for his match against Randy Orton. Mike Adamle was interviewing him when Jericho walked in and tried to get Regal to put him in the Backlash match. He wanted it to be a triple threat match so he could take care of Michaels. Regal went against the triple threat match idea, HOWEVER, Regal did add Jericho naming him the special guest referee. And I’m all for that, I think Jericho in there is just going to make that match even more exciting. YO YO YO, JGT vs. Murdoch was one very short match. And it wasn’t the match that we were supposed to be interested in; it was what happened after Murdoch got pinned by JGT. Again we see a pattern of Murdoch getting pinned and his partner Cade week after week not looking very happy about the loss. It’s just a matter of time before these two go their separate ways.
The match of the night? Oh it was without a doubt, William Regal vs. Randy Orton. I told you Regal was the man last night and this match I believe was one of Regal’s best in a very long time. This was like an old school match to me and one that I could not take my eyes off of. I was just so into what was going on and as I said this was by far the best match of the show. We then had Jericho vs. Umaga. This match really turned out well. Maybe the reason for it turning out the way it did was because we haven’t seen Jericho vs. Umaga. I was really surprised just how well they worked together. Now I’m not one for squash matches, but I was fine with Paul Burchill along with Katie vs. Hacksaw Duggan. I figured just like Regal this is his home country so why not bring him in, cement him as a heel and have Duggan taken out within seconds. And that’s just what they did, and then again I’m a Burchill fan so no wonder why I didn’t mind the squash.
Now I mentioned earlier in this column that JBL’s punishment for being a jerk to Regal was facing Hunter. But I said I think Hunter received the punishment. Did you notice throughout the show JR and Lawler did their best to make this one hell of main event by continually saying these two have never been in the ring together, this is their first meeting. Well they could hype it all they wanted I just knew I wasn’t looking forward to their supposed first meeting. Well the match turned out okay, but JBL looked very slow out there and I still wish he wasn’t in this spot. I didn’t mind Orton coming out to take Hunter out, but what I found weird was there was no Cena. Yet I never heard JR or Lawler give a reason or at least make up a reason why he wouldn’t be there. So the whole time Hunter was being attacked by JBL and Orton, the crowd was chanting Cena’s name and there was no Cena. I thought that WWE really dropped the ball with the way the whole Cena thing was handled. With JBL taking out Orton and holding the belt at the end I would say that next week Cena will have the upper hand and that would mean an Orton win at Backlash.
Raw had its stars and co-stars, which made for a very good Raw. I want to leave you with the following news item. I don’t know how many of you know this, but Joey Styles is no longer the announcer for ECW. Supposedly he’s still with the company, and he’ll be in charge of WWE.com. Now this is not on WWE.com at least I haven’t seen it mentioned but Mike Adamle is the new ECW announcer. Oh this is one Joey Styles fan that IS NOT happy about all of this. With that please don’t forget to listen to me on Saturday nights 10:15 est. time on http://www.mywcwp.com, Click on Podcasts then Over The Ropes. You can call in before I’m on and if you have any questions for me I’m sure the hosts Nick and Max will pass them right on to me.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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