Lets face it, Monday night’s Raw left a lot to be desired. At least for me it did. With the exception of two very good matches, and a very HOT non-wrestling segment, I found the show to be a major disappointment. There were too many matches that were under 5 minutes long. There just seemed to be such little substance for the last show before Sunday’s pay per view. What I would like to do is list what I didn’t like and add a few lovely comments to each, and then end with what I did like, and then I have one small tiny little thing that I want to say about ECW’s new acquisition, Kozlov. Okay here are all the things that just did not work for me Monday night.
1. CM Punk vs. Kane – I think this match was 2 minutes long, and it just meant nothing to me. If you must put these two together, then at least let them wrestle for a good amount of time. This was just a senseless match.
2. Melina vs. Beth Phoenix – Now this had the makings of a nice match, but again it was another quickie. Well at least they got more time than Punk and Kane. Unfortunately just as I was getting into this, the match was over.
3. Big Show vs. Rey Mysterio –Hey in less than two minutes Raw’s new I. C. champion gets knocked out by the Big Show. Wow, that’s all I can say about this one.
4. And the one segment that got way too much time was with Santino Marella. I might be in the minority here, but his comedy segment really was not funny at all. I guess I just can’t take the Santina character and the whole thing just went on and on. The time given to Santino could have been used so much more wisely and given to Punk’s match or the women’s match. This was one segment that really bored me.
Yeah these were the segments that really brought Raw down. But hey it wasn’t all doom and gloom. I LOVED the opening with Chris Jericho and Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat came through again interacting with Chris Jericho. Boy these two really work so well together. I thought this was one outstanding non-wrestling segment and I’m so looking forward to seeing these two go at it at Backlash. And there were only two matches that I really liked and the first was with Jericho taking on John Cena. This was an awesome hard worked match. And thank God because up until this match there was nothing to get into as far as matches go. I always feel that there are two guys that get a lot out of John Cena, one is Shawn Michaels and the other is none other than Chris Jericho. This was the second bright spot of the show.
And finally the main event with Triple H vs. Randy Orton came off so well, so much better than I thought it would. This was the match that they should have done at Wrestlemania. And this match had it been done at Mania should have come before the Taker/HBK match and I believe the fans would have been really into it. I thought Hunter and Orton did a hell of a job going after each other and this was my match of the night. I loved it, and the ending with Legacy and then Shane McMahon and Batista getting in there was done perfectly. You had Batista “accidentally” spearing Shane. And then Batista pushing Hunter makes me wonder if it’s going to be big Dave or little Shane that turns on Hunter at Backlash. Then again will anyone turn on him? Before this match took place they sure made Shane McMahon look a little shady when he was backstage with Batista and then in the locker room with Triple H. It all had to do with their match on Sunday. It seems a little obvious that Shane is turning, but maybe because it’s so obvious it won’t happen. But I will talk more about that over the weekend with my predictions. But this was a cool main event and at least Raw ended on a positive note.
As you can tell this wasn’t my favorite Raw, hopefully Smackdown will be a much better show. Okay last night I’m watching ECW and just like last week we got a hell of a match with Evan Bourne and Paul Burchill, but we also got the same old stuff when it comes to Vladimir Kozlov. Not only did he squash a jobber like he used to do when he first came up to Smackdown, but we got the typical Kozlov video. Oh boy he’s coming to challenge the champion, blah blah blah because he’s so great. I don’t get why he’s challenging the champion, didn’t he lose to Undertaker, Triple H and Shawn Michaels? I think he should maybe just set his sights on guys like Hornswoggle, oh wait he’s no longer with ECW. Yeah I can see it now we are in for a LONG ride with this push Vince continues to give Vladimir. Unless this guy makes some king of major turn around I have no desire whatsoever to see him.
So I will be back with my predictions for Backlash. I did so badly with my Wrestlemania predictions that I’m sure I can at least come up with three right this time. Please feel free to send in your predictions. I have already gotten a few and I wish I could say I was ready with mine, but I’m not quite there yet. Listen I have to work extra hard to improve and feel respectable again. So check my column out on Sunday.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
