And the answer to the title of my column is—–Vince McMahon. Don’t ask me why, but I liked last night’s Raw much better than last week’s. It’s not to say this was a great show but for some reason there was more to hold my interest. Unfortunately one segment was pure trash and I’m sure you know which segment I am talking about and there were a few other things that I didn’t care for, but as I said I enjoyed most of the show. Before I start, I just read on WWE.com that Lance Cade was released. I can’t say that I’m shocked because even though he was with Chris Jericho he just didn’t seem to stand out. So hopefully another company will pick him up. Okay on to Raw.
I have to say I loved the opening last night. Last week I could not get into Chris Jericho at all. But immediately I felt 100 percent different watching Jericho complain to Mike Adamle about the three choices for the refs at Cyber Sunday. I even got a kick out of Adamle just laughing in Jericho’s face when Chris said that he would go over Admale’s head and talk to Shane and Stephanie. I kind of liked the interaction between these two last night. And once Adamle told Jericho that the McMahon kids turn their phones off when the show is on Jericho just thought of another way to get their attention. And he hit the ring and continued bitching about the candidates for the ref spot. Jericho was in rare form and while he just went and on Shawn Michaels came out. HBK was on his game last night and really put Jericho in his place. He explained that he wasn’t pleading for votes, but should he win he would make Cyber Sunday a living hell for the World Champion. And then before Jericho could respond Michaels punched Jericho and attacked him. Jericho managed to get out of the ring, and announced that since Adamle had just said he could pick an opponent for Batista, Shawn Michaels was going to be THAT opponent. This was a nice opening and one that really made me look forward to more of the show.
The first match of the night was a rematch with Mark Henry and Kane vs. Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio. And even though I wasn’t into seeing this rematch, I quickly changed my mind after watching these four go at it. This flowed very well and it wasn’t a long match, but it served its purpose. I might not be that into Kane and Rey’s feud but in tag team matches they have done a nice job going after each other. I enjoyed Batista’s backstage interview with Todd Grisham. I’m very happy that the writers remembered that Batista and Michaels are not friends, and they did that by Dave mentioning how Jericho knows there is friction between Michaels and Batista. I am so glad that Batista and HBK aren’t the best of friends; at least they haven’t ruined the tension between these two. Okay did you guys notice JBL go off on the limo driver for parking too close to the barricade? Now I wasn’t sure if he was just in character or if this was the real thing, but I’m starting to think it was REAL, and if that’s the case I think Bradshaw got carried away big time. As far as JBL talking about stocks, the banks and the economy I’m not into it. I know it’s all a part of his tycoon character but at times it just seems to be too much and too long.
It’s like JBL is just stagnate. If he’s not in a main event with the top guys he’s wrestling Charlie Haas. And last night it was Haas Hogan. It might not have been Haas’s funniest imitation but I still laughed plenty watching those Hogan moves. But the segment wasn’t much and as I said I’m starting to think that Vince is so desperate to push JBL but he doesn’t know who to push him against. WWE gave us another very good video with John Cena and I would have to think that the chain gang is just getting more excited each day knowing that he’s coming back very soon. Not only did I like the video with so many of the major stars complimenting Cena, but also this time Randy Orton won me over. And it’s been weeks since I could say that. I absolutely loved it when he came right out after the Cena video and he said that he found it funny that no one had any kind words to say about him when he got hurt. He then said that he broke his collarbone but finished his match against Triple H. I just loved it, because it’s true we didn’t get a video of Randy, and I’m glad we didn’t because it gave Mr. Orton something to bitch about. Randy did a nice job last night. He wasn’t on long and what he had to say he said very well.
There were not many matches last night but the next one with Shawn Michaels vs. Batista turned out to be really good. I say turned out to be because it took a while for this one to pick up speed, but once it did it was excellent. And this might sound weird but I think Batista worked just a little harder than Shawn and believe me that’s not a rip on HBK. They both put themselves out in the Lumberjack match but I have to give Big Dave the edge. Did you notice that Randy Orton was one of the lumberjack’s which kind of surprised me and what surprised me more was Snitzky was there I forgot all about him. Anyway as I said the match didn’t start out too great but it definitely got better the more it went on. The next segment was just miserable, henceforth my title The Real Jackass Is… You know maybe if Johnny Knoxville and his buds were on here three years ago it might have turned out to be somewhat big. But last night it was worst than a dud. It was like bringing in has-beens to perk up ratings. Nothing about this group worked or was funny. And that includes the unfunny pictures and captions that are on their site.
When Santino came out and got things going I thought we were in for a dynamite segment. Marella was a riot talking about his possible opponents for Cyber Sunday. He made some crack that the Honky Donkey man was a racist name, and then he talked about Goldendust and Rodney The Piper, cross dressers. Again it was Santino at his best and then Santino wanted the unfunny past his prime Johnny Knoxville to come in the ring. Santino said he wasn’t going to put mustard on Knoxville’s privates. Of course that one had me laughing and then things fell apart big time. Knoxville entered the ring made a crack about Santino and Beth Phoenix being dudes, which in turn pissed off Phoenix. First she slapped him, and then she unfortunately gave him a horrible body slam, I mean it was bad, and then more crap was to come. Earlier in the show Knoxville made a midget comment and Hornswoggle came out and did a splash on top of Knoxville. And then if that wasn’t enough Dick Johnson came out, ripped off his clothes, and did his moves. Knoxville’s friend showed off his thong after he ripped his clothes off and did HIS moves. Oh my God this wasn’t even funny and after a long absence the Boogeyman appeared and attacked the thong guy and spit worms down his mouth. Just typing this is hell. And finally The Great Khali came out and squashed Knoxville’s head. This was just horrible and the reason why I picked Vince as the real Jackass is because he wants that mainstream media coverage so badly that he’ll settle for anyone. He doesn’t seem to realize that the best of the Jackass days are behind them. If he thinks this is going to bring in ratings and mainstream articles he’s way off. This is going to hurt Raw not help Raw. What a disaster.
Whew I’m glad to move on. I happened to like the Cryme Tyme/Kelly Kelly vs. Miz/Morrison and Jillian match. I liked the Miz and Morrison’s rap and Jillian getting in on their rap was good, only because she is so bad. This was a nice match but I kind of wonder why tag team champions, DiBiase and Rhodes didn’t have a match last night? But I did enjoy watching this one, and then it was time for the main event. I figured that CM Punk would be the guy that Batista picked to face Jericho. Oh yeah Batista got to pick Jericho’s opponent as well. And not only was it CM Punk but Batista made himself the special ref. This one was a mixed bag for me. While I was very happy to see Punk in this very good match, the fact that Punk won only because of the Batista Bomb to Jericho was a downer for me. Hey Punk would have lost if Dave didn’t feign something in his eye and instead of Vince giving Punk a nice win on his own, it took that Batista Bomb to give Punk a victory. As Carlito would say that is not cool.
But I really did like most of the show, and even Punk’s win with help from Batista didn’t make me dislike the show. But they need to get rid of the idea that Knoxville and his gang mean something, because they don’t. Also before I forget, this has been on my mind for weeks. I don’t know about you, but how CHEESY is the WWE Universe. I feel like I’m 10 years old. The WWE Universe had celebrities at Raw. Oh please, get that Universe out of there, we don’t need that cute little catch phrase, really we don’t. Okay I’m getting ready for ECW and I really hope that the Jackass angle doesn’t become a part of that show and Smackdown, but I have a feeling that Smackdown will get stuck with it as well as Raw. Well I will let you go and I’ll return over the weekend with my thoughts on Smackdown.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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