Today’s column is not only about Raw, BUT it’s also about how last week’s show almost did me in for good. I’ll explain that in a little while. HALLELUJAH we got a 5 star Raw last night and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I thought last night’s show was just excellent. There was nothing that I didn’t like, well yeah I still could care less about the giveaway phone calls but unlike last week’s show we got so much more than phone calls, we got SOLID WRESTLING. I’m still on a high from the show and I can’t wait to talk about it. But first let me tell you why I made that first comment about last week’s Raw.
Trust me I do have a life, however watching Raw along with Smackdown and ECW is so much a part of my life. Even when the shows are average or below average for the most part I still look forward to the show the following week. But last week that didn’t hold true. After sitting for two hours and 10 minutes and watching wrestling take a back seat to a very disorganized contest I got a feeling that I never experienced since I started watching back in 1998. The feeling was like I lost my smile. Wait Shawn Michaels said that, so I will say that the feeling I felt was not a good one. After that horrific show, I wondered just how much longer I would continue to watch not only Raw but also anything from WWE. I know I emailed many of my readers about this because each day that went by I felt like my days watching and writing about the shows were coming to a quick end.
I was so down and discouraged about what we were getting last week. I guess I expected that garbage from other companies, but not WWE. As I said even when I bitch and vent about the shows I always know I’ll be right in front on my TV the following week, but I really thought it was over for me. I was going to give the Raw a few more weeks, but if the shows were close to what we got last week then I guess it’s fair to say that my days watching WWE would be over. Let’s just say that I was one very miserable fan last week. Really there was no excuse for putting on such crap. But last night was such a pleasant turn around. Honestly I was hoping for some improvement but I didn’t expect to get the fantastic show that we got. Not only was Raw off the charts but also the crowd from Salt Lake City, Utah was FANTASTIC. They were just what I needed to get me out of my funk. It was like they all got together and said we got to help make Raw 1,000 times better than it was last week. So let’s just cheer our brains out and that’s just about what they did.
Finally the creative team made me WANT to pay to see Triple H vs. John Cena because of their very HOT opening segment. Now prior to Hunter coming out creative did their usual crap by giving Cena the kind of junk that they love to give him to make fans that are not into him get turned off even more. I hate when they have him kiss ass and talk about how wonderful the company is, the feud is the fans are and blah blah blah. I will admit when Cena first started talking I wasn’t thrilled but once he and Hunter interacted everything came off so well. I loved both of them going at each other verbally and Cena made a strong comeback from the weak script that he was told to say at the beginning. Triple H’s comments were right on, at least for me they were. Like when he told Cena that a lot of his fans won’t be able to watch Night of Champions because it’s past their bed time. I also got a kick out of Triple H saying that maybe a kid can give him a foam belt and Cena can walk around with it so he can feel better. Two hot lines from Hunter and Cena came back with some good responses and facial expressions. This was a damn good way to open Raw and as I said finally I’m looking forward to seeing these two go at it in two weeks.
Cena vs. Umaga in a Street Fight was the first match of the night, and even though these two have had many matches together this one came off well. I have absolutely no complaint about it at all. I’m thinking that we saw Umaga’s last Raw match last night because I’m going with the rumor that he’s moving to Smackdown. And when you think of it he has basically gone through most of the Raw roster. But as I said this was a good opening match. The first non-wrestling segment was Master of Ceremony Charlie Haas and WWE’s divas in a Bikini contest. Hey after last week this even looked good to me. And it’s always nice when Haas is on two weeks in a row this way we can all remember that he is still part of the WWE. The next match with Jeff Hardy vs. Carlito was outstanding. I don’t know how many of you read Carlito’s interview last week, but he went off on Triple H and how he’s where he is because he married Stephanie. Carlito seemed to be in a very nasty mood last week during this interview. After reading it, I figured this is his way of getting fired so when he wrestled Hardy last night I was waiting for Jeff to squash him in a matter of seconds. But that didn’t happen, yes Jeff won, but Carlito got plenty of offense on Hardy and this was one very cool match, and what made it even better was that it wasn’t rushed at all.
I can’t tell you how much I LOVED Chris Jericho’s promo last night. The guy was brilliant. But leading into Jericho’s promos was one hell of a fantastic recap video from last week showing Jericho attacking Shawn Michaels. One thing about WWE their videos are usually OUTSTANDING and this one was just that. Now everything Jericho said during this segment made nothing but sense. He came to save the fans but the fans don’t want or deserve to be saved. I loved how he said that the fans would rather cheer a backstabber like Shawn Michaels. This was one hell of a promo. He ripped an absent Shawn Michaels and the fans like crazy. And while he got the fans to chant for HBK, Michaels wasn’t coming out, because he was “selling” his eye injury from last week. Instead of Shawn showing up we got to see Ric Flair. What a surprise this was and it was done so well because instead of having the retired Flair go after Jericho in the ring, Flair made it clear that he IS retired and can’t wrestle, but he could take Jericho out in the parking lot. Before we saw Jericho follow Flair WWE went to break and when they returned Jericho then left the ring and it looked like it was on between Flair and Y2J, but when Jericho opened the door to go out he stopped dead in his tracks. I figured Shawn Michaels was on the other side, but instead it was Hunter. Now this made total sense to me.
I’m being very honest with you when I say that last week after Shawn took that beating I was wondering whey didn’t his good friend Triple H come out and check on him. So I was so glad to see that creative followed through by having Hunter get in Jericho’s face mentioning how Shawn was home picking glass out of his eye but the part I liked was that he said that he wasn’t there to fight anyone’s battles he just wanted an excuse to go after Jericho. Nice work here by Hunter and all of this was my highlight of the night. And then it got even better when Vince made the main event Jericho vs. Hunter. You can bet I was looking forward to this match. But first we got a very quick and I do mean quick match with Holly/Rhodes vs. Cryme Tyme. See I was fine with this because I really had no desire to see this match. So when Ted DiBiase Jr. walked out just as this was starting, Cryme Tyme looked at him and Holly got the win with a roll up. Go figure, I don’t get the purpose of all of this but at least it was fast. The next match I liked very much and I’m talking about Katie Leah and Paul Burchill vs. Mickie and Mr. Kennedy… Kennedy. Woo this was a lot of fun to watch and in my opinion the women ruled in this one, but Mr. Kennedy’s spear on Burchill through the ropes was just awesome. This was a really good match and after Raw last night WWE.com announced that Mickie will be facing Katie at the Night of Champions for the Women’s title, ah another reason to order that show.
And finally the main event with Jericho vs. Triple H was my match of the night. I always enjoyed watching these two go against each other. I thought they both did a terrific job. I know a lot of people complained and are still complaining that this should have been held for a pay per view, but I totally disagree. With ratings down, although I just read that they went up after last night’s show, but they have been down so it doesn’t hurt to give the fans some HOT matches on free TV. Give the fans a reason to want to watch each week. Remember if you get a good product for free then many might not hesitate to order a pay per view. Having this main event last night was just what Raw needed to have. As I said it was a damn good match, and the ending was just as good. I had no idea that the thin guy that attacked Hunter was Garrison Cade. I didn’t recognize him at all. But I loved the attack although I was wondering why would John Cena come out and save his enemy. I didn’t get that but at least once Cena got Jericho and Cade out of there, Hunter and Cena then went at it.
This was a great ending to a super show and I feel proud to be a wrestling fan again. Usually I’m always proud to be a fan, but after last week I can’t say I felt that way. So what a fantastic comeback and now I’m all ready for next week’s draft. Now speaking of the draft, there is a huge rumor going around that John Cena is going back to Smackdown. Remember it’s a rumor but a big one. I want to do a draft column over the weekend and I might tie it in with my thoughts on Smackdown. Either way I will be back unlike this past weekend when I expected to talk about Smackdown, which by the way I liked a lot. But I forgot it was Father’s Day and we were not around that much over the weekend. I’m so happy to leave you on such a positive note what a difference a week makes.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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