Let’s see Sunday’s pay per view No Mercy was excellent and last night’s Raw was not. It’s kind of like when I attended the Raw after Summer Slam. While Summer Slam came off well, my Raw was below average, well below average. I will give you my thoughts on both shows. I will try not to make this too long, and let me warn you that my thoughts on Raw won’t be exactly happy ones, so that’s why I am going to start with No Mercy. By the way I missed two of my predictions, Taker and Jeff Hardy. Not bad, but I’m still going for that perfect score.
Okay there were just a few things I didn’t like Sunday at No Mercy. One was a match; the other segments were non-wrestling segments. I’m talking about the first promo with Randy Orton, MVP, Cody Rhodes with Ted Di Biase and Manu, and then JBL and Cryme Tyme. Okay, while I feel that Randy Orton has brought a lot to the shows, it’s getting to a point where he is being thrown on TV and it’s just the same thing over and over again. I think I even mentioned this a few weeks ago. He’s stoned face and in that monotone way that he has talks about how “great” he is. Sometimes it works but lately it doesn’t and it bombed at No Mercy. And even though I thought Cody Rhodes did a good job on the mic, the boring chants from the live Portland crowd said it all, it was a dull dragged out worthless segment. Plus having MVP involved made no sense, and the more this played out MVP came off looking like a total jerk, which I’ll explain in a little bit. This was one very poor segment and the other was with JBL after his loss to Batista. You got to give it to JBL he knows how to get major heat. I didn’t mind his promo at the end but it went on too long and when Cryme Tyme was added in it just felt like filler. Like they needed to waste time because there weren’t enough matches booked for the show. And the match that did nothing for me, yet so many are raving about was Taker vs. Big Show. It was as bland as the feud. I’m puzzled by compliments that so many on different sites and some of my readers have sent me. I saw nothing new being done in this match and it was just the way I thought it would be, except I saw Taker winning. But this was my worst match of the show.
Now I didn’t make the women’s match the worst, because I thought it was fine, no it wasn’t fantastic, but Beth Phoenix and Candice did a good enough job. My match of the night? Oh sure it was that brutal ladder match, with Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H a close second. These two matches were totally outstanding and so worth seeing if you haven’t caught them yet. As I watched Jericho and HBK I was not only concerned for their safety but I kept thinking that these two have nothing to prove and why even put themselves in such a physical match? But these are two pro’s that wanted to give the fans something that they would never forget and they totally succeeded. What a brilliant match. And Hardy vs. Triple H was off the charts. Okay Hardy didn’t win, but the surprise roll up by Hunter was different and a nice way to get that win and keep the title. Hardy brought the very best out in Hunter, and Hunter brought the very best out in Jeff. They have excellent chemistry and I don’t think you could have asked any more from these two.
The opening match with Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry came off so much better than I expected. It really was a pleasure to watch. And Kane vs. Rey Mysterio was going very well until the ending. I was very impressed by what was going on in the ring, but very disappointed with the ending. If Kane wanted Rey’s mask off so badly why didn’t Kane pull the damn thing off when Rey was laying on the ground? I thought the ending really took away from what Mysterio and Kane did. The only reason why I didn’t add Batista vs. JBL to my negative list was because it was a very fast match and Batista was made to look like a strong number one contender. Hey this wasn’t much of a match but at least it was quick. Also it was cool to see CM Punk come out with Kofi Kingston and it was even somewhat funny to watch them befriend MVP only to have Di Biase, Rhodes and Manu attack him, but as I said earlier this made MVP look like a tool. If MVP has been floundering on Smackdown, the attack certainly didn’t help on Sunday. Also let me add, while I have NOTHING against Manu, he doesn’t fit the tag team champs. It just doesn’t work with him. I mean he was just thrown in with them with no build up and he hasn’t gelled at all with Team Priceless. I think they should have left it with just Rhodes and Di Biase.
No Mercy came off so well and it’s always nice when a pay per view crowd is into the show and this Portland, Oregon crowd was very into the show from beginning to end. Okay so let me go on to Raw. I’ve got a few nice things to say I really do. For instance I really liked the opening with Chris Jericho and Batista. It just felt like it was something that we have never seen before. I also enjoyed watching the very smug Jericho taking Batista’s spinebuster. It capped off a very good opening. The tag team match with Santino and Beth Phoenix vs. Jamie Noble and Mickie James came off well. I am seeing a serious side of Noble lately especially last night. Kofi Kingston vs. Ted DiBiase was another good match. And we got another appearance by CM (I was once the World Champion) Punk. We had another really good tag team match with Mark Henry and Kane vs. Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio. This one had a lot going for it and while I can’t say I like throwing Cade in there against Michaels, I did like the ending A LOT. The match itself didn’t do it for me, but HBK going after Cade with one hard chair shot after another was booked to perfection. We saw a very frustrated Michaels taking out his anger on Cade because the GM for the night Jericho made Michael’s wrestle injured. So Cade was the recipient of some really cool chair shots. So the first hour of Raw was actually very good, and then it was all downhill from there.
I would love to just list what I really didn’t like in hour number 2. So I think I will.
1. The three choices to go against Santino Marella for the IC title at Cyber Sunday. I would much rather see 3 current guys get that chance not Rowdy Piper, Goldust and the Honky Donkey man.
2. Khali doing the kiss cam and good old Vince bringing in the jack assess from Jackass into a program with Khali. Oh I dread this. And is Khali back on Raw? Do we care?
3. The most horrible banter going on between Miz and Morrison against Cryme Tyme while Kelly Kelly was taking on Jillian. The talking was so obnoxious and non-stop that no one seemed to care about what was going on in the ring. Well Cole and Lawler kind of did, but I could not stand the so-called trash talking between all four. Meanwhile Kelly Kelly and Jillian had a nice little match going on, but so what? I guess Vince thought having 4 talk over each other was more entertaining.
4. And finally I couldn’t get into JBL vs. Batista again. Sunday was enough and Jericho as special ref, Orton as announcer, which was a joke and William Regal the timekeeper just made me watch the clock and wait for the show to end. The second hour was just such a dud.
But we did find out that we could vote on whom we would like to see guest ref Batista’s match again Jericho for the World Title. We can choose between Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, or Steve Austin. Now I think Austin should have been used in something else, I don’t get how he got involved here but I would say it’s safe to say he’ll get the nod for this match. By the way speaking of Cyber Sunday, remember the good old days when we could vote online? Well that’s not going to happen this time. It’s now text your vote or don’t vote. I don’t know why the change but I know I probably won’t vote this year.
Raw just didn’t quite cut it for me but No Mercy sure did. Okay I will be back over the weekend with my Smackdown thoughts and maybe a few ECW thoughts as well. Let’s see it’s Big Show vs. Triple H for the WWE title. Oh yes another match that I could do without, but maybe I’ll get lucky and Undertaker will interfere and cut this one short. I will leave you with a really good question from a reader. The reason I say that is because I want to know the answer as well. He would like to know the name of the new Smackdown theme and the group that does the song. You can email my reader at domtos88@googlemail.com.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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