Post by "IcePic" Rick Cobos on Jan 9, 2007 15:08:03 GMT -5
1/9/2007 3:57:00 AM
WWE Raw TV report
by Todd Martin
WWE Raw Report
By: Todd Martin
Email: MartinT2007@lawnet.ucla.edu
Blog: toddwmartin.blogspot.com
Date: 01/08/06 from St. Louis, MO.
The Big News: There was a loud “TNA” chant on Raw. Seriously. I wouldn’t have taken 1,000 to 1 odds on that ever happening if you offered me this morning, but it made total sense when you look at what inspired it. Also, the 2007 Wrestling Observer Worst Match of the Year race is officially over. You can go ahead and mark “Rosie O’Donnell” vs. “Donald Trump” on your ballot now.
Title Changes/Turns: None.
Conclusive Finishes: 3 of 6. This was probably the worst show as far as devaluing match results since I started tracking finishes.
Match Results: Jeff Hardy b Kenny Dykstra; Victoria & Melina b Mickie James & Maria; “Donald Trump” b “Rosie O’Donnell”; Carlito Caribbean Cool b Chris Masters; Cryme Tyme b Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch; Great Khali b John Cena-DQ.
Show Analysis:
They started the show by recapping DX-Orton/Edge from New Year’s Resolution. I actually had an even longer rant on this, but I’m going to keep it more concise since there were much, much bigger problems on this episode. They framed yesterday as HHH injuring himself and DX still completely obliterating Randy Orton and Edge. They announced a “victory celebration” for Orton and Edge, with a picture of them bloodied and laid out yet ready to celebrate a fluke injury.
Look, HHH is going to be out for a long time. There is absolutely no justification for framing this as him destroying your main event heels on the way out, particularly since the whole point of the feud should have been to bring Orton and Edge up to DX’s level. The man was actually injured in a match. I don’t care if the original story was different. The new story is to get Orton and Edge over as the guys that stopped DX, not lucked into an injury and got annihilated anyway. Does Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen ring a bell? This was absolutely ridiculous. They had a ready made story to get two of their top young stars up to the next level, and instead they put over the guy who needs absolutely no help and is going to be gone well past WrestleMania.
It just got better from there. John Cena came out. Cena said Armando is claiming last night was a fluke, but it wasn’t. He put over Umaga and offered him a rematch. Coach said that Umaga would have the night off, and John Cena would be facing Great Khali. Yes indeed. Khali’s monster push is back, despite the fact he has no discernable talent aside from being tall. The biggest pay-per-view draws in 2006 were Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Ortiz and Matt Hughes. Yet Vince McMahon still has his head buried in the sand with this incomprehensible, unjustifiable, completely non-sensical obsession with size. He’s big. Great. Doesn’t the fact that he can’t wrestle, he can’t talk, and he has no charisma present some sort of problem?
Vince McMahon talked about legendary matches, and added Rosie O’Donnell vs. Donald Trump to the list. They brought in a Rosie O’Donnell impersonator to do lame, unfunny, ham-fisted skits based mainly around making fun of her weight. They were also unnecessarily mean spirited and clearly they were much more interested in mocking O’Donnell than Trump.
Jeff Hardy beat Kenny Dykstra. Jeff hit a baseball slide and pescado early. Kenny pushed Jeff off the top rope to the floor and had a brief advantage. Jeff came back with the whisper in the wind. Johnny Nitro came out to distract Jeff but Ric Flair came in and gave Kenny a low blow. Jeff hit the twist of fate and swanton for the pin. Jim Ross got in a Mookie Wilson reference, which was pretty funny. Maybe he’ll bring up Gary Carter next week. Dykstra is actually a really good fit for the Intercontinental Title. He’s exactly the sort of rising star that has been helped over the years by holding the Intercontinental Title.
They ran a package on Great Khali building him up as an unstoppable monster. He then did an unbelievably horrendous promo. It was almost like they want him to be a comedy character, because he emoted so little intensity that you could hear the audience loudly laughing in the background. This was a total disaster as far as getting him over, and I have no idea why they didn’t bring Daivari with him.
Victoria and Melina beat Maria and Mickie James. Maria gave Melina a bronco buster, but then the heels took over on her. They double teamed her and the faces never really got a comeback. Melina pinned Maria after a bulldog. This was the right way to book it. Maria is very likeable and a good performer but she doesn’t have the physical credibility of the other three. The WrestleMania recall was Steve Austin stunning Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg, for what it’s worth.
Next up was quite the segment: “Rosie O’Donnell” “vs.” “Donald Trump.” Rosie was clearly the heel. They went on and on and on, and the crowd predictably crap all over this. Vince McMahon was watching at ringside and it will be interesting to learn what he thought of the crowd reaction. There was loud booing and “boring” chants. Then came the amazing chant of “TNA” which was actually substantial. I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t know that many people in the audience even knew of TNA. Then there was a loud “we want wrestling” chant. “Donald” scored the pin with a head butt off the second rope. Ross said that this would be a SportsCenter moment. Yeah, a phony Donald Trump wrestling a phony Rosie O’Donnell is going to make SportsCenter. That will air right after ESPN’s personality feature on Katie Couric.
Carlito beat Chris Masters. This feud must continue! Masters hit a press slam and power slam. Torrie Wilson came to ringside and hit Masters with the ring bell. That allowed Carlito to hit the back cracker for the pin.
Edge and Randy Orton came out, with Edge limping and Orton in a neck brace. Orton acknowledged that DX whipped their asses, and talked about how bad they got beat up and how hurt they are. He added that it was worth it because “HHH tore his quadriceps.” Yes, even Orton didn’t frame this as anything other than HHH injuring himself. Edge talked about all the people DX buried and destroyed before HHH hurt himself.
Edge said next week they will finish off DX when they take on Shawn Michaels in a handicap match. Michaels came out. He said he doesn’t know if this is the end of DX. He talked about HHH going into surgery, and said he would be with HHH. The crowd chanted for HHH. Michaels said next week he’ll deal with Orton and Edge. Michaels was really good here, in a promo reminiscent of the one he did in 1995 relinquishing the IC Title after the nightclub incident.
Cryme Tyme beat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Cade and Murdoch worked over Shad, mainly with punches and kicks. Shad made the tag to JTG, who came in with drop kicks. Shad rammed Murdoch’s head into the turnbuckle and JTG scored the pin. Backstage, Eugene was apparently back to being a face with no explanation given. He talked about John Cena being his favorite when Khali walked by and stared him down.
Great Khali beat John Cena via DQ. Khali hit a shoulder block, clothesline and elbow. Cena tried to slam Khali unsuccessfully. Armando brought a chair onto the apron. Cena took it from him and hit Khali with it but Khali no sold it. Khali then hit a chop and the tree slam, laying out Cena. He didn’t sell a single move from the champion and left. Armando then called for Umaga, who gave Cena the butt drop and Samoan spike to close the show.
Final Thoughts:
This was just an abysmal show: the sort of show that turns off the current audience, makes the departed audience glad they don’t watch anymore, and makes non fans think of professional wrestling as the world’s lowest form of entertainment. It’s the sort of show that leaves WWE with the least educated and least affluent audience on network television, and a tremendous business decline. It’s one thing to produce a show that is good or bad on its own merits. Then there are shows like this so disastrously conceived that they could not possibly be produced by a competent creative team. Vince McMahon is so out of touch. His goofy, inane comedy and completely untalented big men are completely antithetical to what the audience desires. WWE rarely has its audience reject it as strongly as occurred tonight, and the sad thing is WWE isn’t likely to take any lessons from that.
LOOKING AT A "JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE, IT DOES" EDITION OF RAW
by Dave Scherer @ 11:13:00 AM on 1/9/2007
Early on in Raw, we got the wonderful news that The Great Khali, he of the work that is so scary WWE has gone out of its way to make sure they could post-produce what they choose to let air of his matches, was coming to Raw and would be facing John Cena in the main event. The company's signature show was putting a guy who had exactly one thing going for him, his size, at the top of the card. This doesn't exactly make you stand up in anticipation of the classic main events that the two men can have. But, that wasn't even the worst part of Raw last night.
The joy and merriment I felt at this wonderful announcement was nothing compared to the car wreck that would come later as WWE did their parody of Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump. The segment was bad enough to begin with, but was made even worse by the company's decision to have the announcers sell the "match" as if it were the real people wrestling. Vince McMahon got to sit at ringside as the fans serenaded him with chants of "TNA" and "Boring", and he just kept smiling. As long as he's having fun, the hell with the masses. With two segments like that, the show didn't have a chance and predictably, it was a horrible effort from the company.
I won't go so far as to say it was a bad show from beginning to end because there were a few things that I liked, but there was certainly far, far more that I didn't. I must have gotten 100 emails since last night saying things like, "Why should I even watch Raw/WWE any more" and you know, I don't really have a good answer. At this point, the people who are still following the Raw and ECW brands are doing so because they have "the wrestling sickness". Well, that and the fact that they just love wrestling on the whole and their options are so limited that they don't have much of a choice. It's a real shame that WWE has positioned itself as being the main source of professional wrestling in the US and yet they don't take the responsibility seriously or as the "sacred trust" that they are now responsible for. As time goes on, they get farther and farther away from the roots of the business, and that was entirely evident last night.
What always sold in this business was focusing just as heavily on the sports aspect as the entertainment aspect but today, they just want to be Saturday Night Live every week it seems. I am not saying that skits and angles don't belong, because they do. I am not saying that they shouldn't be topical or play off of current events, because they should. What I am saying, however, is they should never subject us to the garbage that they made us sit through last night with "Rosie and Donald". But, as long as the ratings stay where they are, nothing will change since Vince and Steph know what we fans want to see more than we do. That's probably the most depressing aspect of all.
The Angles: I liked Cena's promo to open the show. It was interesting that he admitted that he got his ass kicked the night before at the PPV, because he did. But, as I have said before, doing a PPV rematch, especially a title bout, the night after people paid forty bucks to see the match is just nuts. What's even goofier is to make the fans think that they would get the match, only to pull it away from them (though in fairness at least the live crowd did get the bout when Raw went off the air). Then, to make matters worse, they not only tease them about a Umaga match, but then they subject them to Khali. Some things are just not fair. ... The segment with Rosie and Vince McMahon was so lame I won't even launch into any more of a tirade about it other than to say that in addition to doing it, they double-screwed us by making it run so long. It's a shame sometimes that Vince McMahon just can't embrace the fact that he owns a wrestling company. He wants to be Tarantino. Not on your best day Vinnie. ... To be fair, I think that "Rosie" did a great job in playing the role, it was just a role I didn't want to see. The same goes for "Donald". ... Edge did a great job on his promo, talking about what he and Randy Orton did to DX. Orton's promo was even better than usual. Both guys looked like they went through a leaf chipper at the PPV, which did a great job of selling the brutality from their match at New Year's Revolution. Shawn Michaels showed a lot of fire in his piece as well. Good job all around. They needed something strong on this show, especially by this point, and they delivered.
The Matches: Jeff Hardy and Kenny Dykstra had a good, solid match. After seeing "Rosie", I needed something good to calm me down and remind me after being subjected that dreck. It ends up it was the only match given any time, so I hope if you were looking for some wrestling, you didn't miss this one. ... The ladies match was fine for what it was. They had three of the four women that can work in the match so it was as good as you can hope for from diva competition, especially when it was given so little time. To state they obvious, they were all smoking hot. ...
As I said above, I just don't have it in me to rant about the obvious. The "Rosie-Donald" stuff was as bad as anything WWE has ever done. They think it will get mainstream press and/or a response by Rosie on "The View", which would then get pub. Wonderful. Subject your fans to some of the worst garbage you have ever done (and boy, that is a really big body of work) just so you can get people who don't care about your business and will never support it to talk about it. That's just brilliant. The only good part of it was that the fans crapped all over it and forced Vince McMahon to sit at ringside and hear their displeasure with the garbage he forced down their throats. ... Carlito and Chris Masters was fine. Carlito got his win back from the PPV (and it's more important to win on TV) and they firmly established Torrie with Carlito. ... Cryme Tyme beat a team no one cares about. Their push continues and since they get a pop, it should, at least at the level that they are getting pushed now. ... What can I say about the main event? There isn't much to say really. Khali is big, strong and tough and Cena couldn't do much with him. That was pretty much it.
Rhetorical And Unanswered Questions:
If someone else had been hurt, would they have opened Raw showing the scenario of his injury?
Was anyone else surprised to learn that you could be, as JR said, sore "down to your bone marrow"?
Wasn't WWE excited to hear the ovation for Cena?
Does anything else scream "no credibility" more than them using WWE.com as part of angles on Raw?
When Cena said "last night was an ass whipping", wasn't it cool that he admitted that he was the one to get smacked around?
Why would they put Khali on a live show when, for months now, they have been making sure to have him appear on programs where his "work" could be post-produced?
Did anyone else want to vomit when two of the most vile people in show business ended up on a WWE broadcast?
And who knew that WWE could maybe actually book something more tasteless than Muhammad Hassan or exploiting Eddie Guerrero's death by putting Trump and Rosie on Raw?
Did you catch JR's Mookie Wilson reference during the Dykstra match?
And, how many of the fans had no idea who Mookie was?
Boy, did the "Rosie"-diva segment scream, "Man, we hope we can tick her off enough to get the women on 'The View' to talk about us" or what?
Weren't you hanging on every one of Khali's words during his promo?
Hey, did JR think Skittles were fruity or what?
Man, how happy was WWE to see that the BCS title game was a blowout at halftime?
Then again, how much of the potential switchover audience did the game actually keep when the fans were treated to the "Rosie-Donald" fiasco?
After what happened to his son-in-law and to his own quads in the past, shouldn't Vinnie Mac have dialed down his power walk to the ring a little bit?
When Vince said that Donald Trump was from the "hit show 'The Apprentice' ", did he miss the overnight ratings and how poorly the show did in its debut on Sunday?
How great were the fans for crapping all over the crappy Rosie-Hump stuff that WWE heartlessly subjected us to?
And how great, and I mean GREAT, was the TNA chant that followed?
Even more, how doubly GREAT was the "We Want Wrestling" chant?
Will WWE EVER listen to the fans and realize how little they appreciate garbage like this?
How can Vince McMahon sit at ringside, hear the fans hate that garbage and not try to improve his product?
Doesn't it prove that creative has a mean streak when they give us a rematch from the PPV and it has to be Chris Masters?
When JR pushed WWE.com as the place to get the latest news, don't you just know that he wishes he could mention his own website?
Shouldn't someone tell WWE that it's called a "quadriceps" muscle, with an "s", even when you are only referring to one of them?
Did I really hear Randy Orton taking credit for putting out HHH when all he did was take a spinebuster?
So, who is going to end up helping Shawn Michaels next week?
How does Shawn have a DX shirt that has a cross in the middle?
I mean, isn't that oxymoronic?
Why did JR guess that Khali was 7'3" when they said he was earlier in the show?
Doesn't come across as goofy when the announcers have to say, "Who is Estrada motioning too" when everyone in the building knows who it is?
WWE Raw TV report
by Todd Martin
WWE Raw Report
By: Todd Martin
Email: MartinT2007@lawnet.ucla.edu
Blog: toddwmartin.blogspot.com
Date: 01/08/06 from St. Louis, MO.
The Big News: There was a loud “TNA” chant on Raw. Seriously. I wouldn’t have taken 1,000 to 1 odds on that ever happening if you offered me this morning, but it made total sense when you look at what inspired it. Also, the 2007 Wrestling Observer Worst Match of the Year race is officially over. You can go ahead and mark “Rosie O’Donnell” vs. “Donald Trump” on your ballot now.
Title Changes/Turns: None.
Conclusive Finishes: 3 of 6. This was probably the worst show as far as devaluing match results since I started tracking finishes.
Match Results: Jeff Hardy b Kenny Dykstra; Victoria & Melina b Mickie James & Maria; “Donald Trump” b “Rosie O’Donnell”; Carlito Caribbean Cool b Chris Masters; Cryme Tyme b Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch; Great Khali b John Cena-DQ.
Show Analysis:
They started the show by recapping DX-Orton/Edge from New Year’s Resolution. I actually had an even longer rant on this, but I’m going to keep it more concise since there were much, much bigger problems on this episode. They framed yesterday as HHH injuring himself and DX still completely obliterating Randy Orton and Edge. They announced a “victory celebration” for Orton and Edge, with a picture of them bloodied and laid out yet ready to celebrate a fluke injury.
Look, HHH is going to be out for a long time. There is absolutely no justification for framing this as him destroying your main event heels on the way out, particularly since the whole point of the feud should have been to bring Orton and Edge up to DX’s level. The man was actually injured in a match. I don’t care if the original story was different. The new story is to get Orton and Edge over as the guys that stopped DX, not lucked into an injury and got annihilated anyway. Does Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen ring a bell? This was absolutely ridiculous. They had a ready made story to get two of their top young stars up to the next level, and instead they put over the guy who needs absolutely no help and is going to be gone well past WrestleMania.
It just got better from there. John Cena came out. Cena said Armando is claiming last night was a fluke, but it wasn’t. He put over Umaga and offered him a rematch. Coach said that Umaga would have the night off, and John Cena would be facing Great Khali. Yes indeed. Khali’s monster push is back, despite the fact he has no discernable talent aside from being tall. The biggest pay-per-view draws in 2006 were Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Ortiz and Matt Hughes. Yet Vince McMahon still has his head buried in the sand with this incomprehensible, unjustifiable, completely non-sensical obsession with size. He’s big. Great. Doesn’t the fact that he can’t wrestle, he can’t talk, and he has no charisma present some sort of problem?
Vince McMahon talked about legendary matches, and added Rosie O’Donnell vs. Donald Trump to the list. They brought in a Rosie O’Donnell impersonator to do lame, unfunny, ham-fisted skits based mainly around making fun of her weight. They were also unnecessarily mean spirited and clearly they were much more interested in mocking O’Donnell than Trump.
Jeff Hardy beat Kenny Dykstra. Jeff hit a baseball slide and pescado early. Kenny pushed Jeff off the top rope to the floor and had a brief advantage. Jeff came back with the whisper in the wind. Johnny Nitro came out to distract Jeff but Ric Flair came in and gave Kenny a low blow. Jeff hit the twist of fate and swanton for the pin. Jim Ross got in a Mookie Wilson reference, which was pretty funny. Maybe he’ll bring up Gary Carter next week. Dykstra is actually a really good fit for the Intercontinental Title. He’s exactly the sort of rising star that has been helped over the years by holding the Intercontinental Title.
They ran a package on Great Khali building him up as an unstoppable monster. He then did an unbelievably horrendous promo. It was almost like they want him to be a comedy character, because he emoted so little intensity that you could hear the audience loudly laughing in the background. This was a total disaster as far as getting him over, and I have no idea why they didn’t bring Daivari with him.
Victoria and Melina beat Maria and Mickie James. Maria gave Melina a bronco buster, but then the heels took over on her. They double teamed her and the faces never really got a comeback. Melina pinned Maria after a bulldog. This was the right way to book it. Maria is very likeable and a good performer but she doesn’t have the physical credibility of the other three. The WrestleMania recall was Steve Austin stunning Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg, for what it’s worth.
Next up was quite the segment: “Rosie O’Donnell” “vs.” “Donald Trump.” Rosie was clearly the heel. They went on and on and on, and the crowd predictably crap all over this. Vince McMahon was watching at ringside and it will be interesting to learn what he thought of the crowd reaction. There was loud booing and “boring” chants. Then came the amazing chant of “TNA” which was actually substantial. I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t know that many people in the audience even knew of TNA. Then there was a loud “we want wrestling” chant. “Donald” scored the pin with a head butt off the second rope. Ross said that this would be a SportsCenter moment. Yeah, a phony Donald Trump wrestling a phony Rosie O’Donnell is going to make SportsCenter. That will air right after ESPN’s personality feature on Katie Couric.
Carlito beat Chris Masters. This feud must continue! Masters hit a press slam and power slam. Torrie Wilson came to ringside and hit Masters with the ring bell. That allowed Carlito to hit the back cracker for the pin.
Edge and Randy Orton came out, with Edge limping and Orton in a neck brace. Orton acknowledged that DX whipped their asses, and talked about how bad they got beat up and how hurt they are. He added that it was worth it because “HHH tore his quadriceps.” Yes, even Orton didn’t frame this as anything other than HHH injuring himself. Edge talked about all the people DX buried and destroyed before HHH hurt himself.
Edge said next week they will finish off DX when they take on Shawn Michaels in a handicap match. Michaels came out. He said he doesn’t know if this is the end of DX. He talked about HHH going into surgery, and said he would be with HHH. The crowd chanted for HHH. Michaels said next week he’ll deal with Orton and Edge. Michaels was really good here, in a promo reminiscent of the one he did in 1995 relinquishing the IC Title after the nightclub incident.
Cryme Tyme beat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Cade and Murdoch worked over Shad, mainly with punches and kicks. Shad made the tag to JTG, who came in with drop kicks. Shad rammed Murdoch’s head into the turnbuckle and JTG scored the pin. Backstage, Eugene was apparently back to being a face with no explanation given. He talked about John Cena being his favorite when Khali walked by and stared him down.
Great Khali beat John Cena via DQ. Khali hit a shoulder block, clothesline and elbow. Cena tried to slam Khali unsuccessfully. Armando brought a chair onto the apron. Cena took it from him and hit Khali with it but Khali no sold it. Khali then hit a chop and the tree slam, laying out Cena. He didn’t sell a single move from the champion and left. Armando then called for Umaga, who gave Cena the butt drop and Samoan spike to close the show.
Final Thoughts:
This was just an abysmal show: the sort of show that turns off the current audience, makes the departed audience glad they don’t watch anymore, and makes non fans think of professional wrestling as the world’s lowest form of entertainment. It’s the sort of show that leaves WWE with the least educated and least affluent audience on network television, and a tremendous business decline. It’s one thing to produce a show that is good or bad on its own merits. Then there are shows like this so disastrously conceived that they could not possibly be produced by a competent creative team. Vince McMahon is so out of touch. His goofy, inane comedy and completely untalented big men are completely antithetical to what the audience desires. WWE rarely has its audience reject it as strongly as occurred tonight, and the sad thing is WWE isn’t likely to take any lessons from that.
LOOKING AT A "JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE, IT DOES" EDITION OF RAW
by Dave Scherer @ 11:13:00 AM on 1/9/2007
Early on in Raw, we got the wonderful news that The Great Khali, he of the work that is so scary WWE has gone out of its way to make sure they could post-produce what they choose to let air of his matches, was coming to Raw and would be facing John Cena in the main event. The company's signature show was putting a guy who had exactly one thing going for him, his size, at the top of the card. This doesn't exactly make you stand up in anticipation of the classic main events that the two men can have. But, that wasn't even the worst part of Raw last night.
The joy and merriment I felt at this wonderful announcement was nothing compared to the car wreck that would come later as WWE did their parody of Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump. The segment was bad enough to begin with, but was made even worse by the company's decision to have the announcers sell the "match" as if it were the real people wrestling. Vince McMahon got to sit at ringside as the fans serenaded him with chants of "TNA" and "Boring", and he just kept smiling. As long as he's having fun, the hell with the masses. With two segments like that, the show didn't have a chance and predictably, it was a horrible effort from the company.
I won't go so far as to say it was a bad show from beginning to end because there were a few things that I liked, but there was certainly far, far more that I didn't. I must have gotten 100 emails since last night saying things like, "Why should I even watch Raw/WWE any more" and you know, I don't really have a good answer. At this point, the people who are still following the Raw and ECW brands are doing so because they have "the wrestling sickness". Well, that and the fact that they just love wrestling on the whole and their options are so limited that they don't have much of a choice. It's a real shame that WWE has positioned itself as being the main source of professional wrestling in the US and yet they don't take the responsibility seriously or as the "sacred trust" that they are now responsible for. As time goes on, they get farther and farther away from the roots of the business, and that was entirely evident last night.
What always sold in this business was focusing just as heavily on the sports aspect as the entertainment aspect but today, they just want to be Saturday Night Live every week it seems. I am not saying that skits and angles don't belong, because they do. I am not saying that they shouldn't be topical or play off of current events, because they should. What I am saying, however, is they should never subject us to the garbage that they made us sit through last night with "Rosie and Donald". But, as long as the ratings stay where they are, nothing will change since Vince and Steph know what we fans want to see more than we do. That's probably the most depressing aspect of all.
The Angles: I liked Cena's promo to open the show. It was interesting that he admitted that he got his ass kicked the night before at the PPV, because he did. But, as I have said before, doing a PPV rematch, especially a title bout, the night after people paid forty bucks to see the match is just nuts. What's even goofier is to make the fans think that they would get the match, only to pull it away from them (though in fairness at least the live crowd did get the bout when Raw went off the air). Then, to make matters worse, they not only tease them about a Umaga match, but then they subject them to Khali. Some things are just not fair. ... The segment with Rosie and Vince McMahon was so lame I won't even launch into any more of a tirade about it other than to say that in addition to doing it, they double-screwed us by making it run so long. It's a shame sometimes that Vince McMahon just can't embrace the fact that he owns a wrestling company. He wants to be Tarantino. Not on your best day Vinnie. ... To be fair, I think that "Rosie" did a great job in playing the role, it was just a role I didn't want to see. The same goes for "Donald". ... Edge did a great job on his promo, talking about what he and Randy Orton did to DX. Orton's promo was even better than usual. Both guys looked like they went through a leaf chipper at the PPV, which did a great job of selling the brutality from their match at New Year's Revolution. Shawn Michaels showed a lot of fire in his piece as well. Good job all around. They needed something strong on this show, especially by this point, and they delivered.
The Matches: Jeff Hardy and Kenny Dykstra had a good, solid match. After seeing "Rosie", I needed something good to calm me down and remind me after being subjected that dreck. It ends up it was the only match given any time, so I hope if you were looking for some wrestling, you didn't miss this one. ... The ladies match was fine for what it was. They had three of the four women that can work in the match so it was as good as you can hope for from diva competition, especially when it was given so little time. To state they obvious, they were all smoking hot. ...
As I said above, I just don't have it in me to rant about the obvious. The "Rosie-Donald" stuff was as bad as anything WWE has ever done. They think it will get mainstream press and/or a response by Rosie on "The View", which would then get pub. Wonderful. Subject your fans to some of the worst garbage you have ever done (and boy, that is a really big body of work) just so you can get people who don't care about your business and will never support it to talk about it. That's just brilliant. The only good part of it was that the fans crapped all over it and forced Vince McMahon to sit at ringside and hear their displeasure with the garbage he forced down their throats. ... Carlito and Chris Masters was fine. Carlito got his win back from the PPV (and it's more important to win on TV) and they firmly established Torrie with Carlito. ... Cryme Tyme beat a team no one cares about. Their push continues and since they get a pop, it should, at least at the level that they are getting pushed now. ... What can I say about the main event? There isn't much to say really. Khali is big, strong and tough and Cena couldn't do much with him. That was pretty much it.
Rhetorical And Unanswered Questions:
If someone else had been hurt, would they have opened Raw showing the scenario of his injury?
Was anyone else surprised to learn that you could be, as JR said, sore "down to your bone marrow"?
Wasn't WWE excited to hear the ovation for Cena?
Does anything else scream "no credibility" more than them using WWE.com as part of angles on Raw?
When Cena said "last night was an ass whipping", wasn't it cool that he admitted that he was the one to get smacked around?
Why would they put Khali on a live show when, for months now, they have been making sure to have him appear on programs where his "work" could be post-produced?
Did anyone else want to vomit when two of the most vile people in show business ended up on a WWE broadcast?
And who knew that WWE could maybe actually book something more tasteless than Muhammad Hassan or exploiting Eddie Guerrero's death by putting Trump and Rosie on Raw?
Did you catch JR's Mookie Wilson reference during the Dykstra match?
And, how many of the fans had no idea who Mookie was?
Boy, did the "Rosie"-diva segment scream, "Man, we hope we can tick her off enough to get the women on 'The View' to talk about us" or what?
Weren't you hanging on every one of Khali's words during his promo?
Hey, did JR think Skittles were fruity or what?
Man, how happy was WWE to see that the BCS title game was a blowout at halftime?
Then again, how much of the potential switchover audience did the game actually keep when the fans were treated to the "Rosie-Donald" fiasco?
After what happened to his son-in-law and to his own quads in the past, shouldn't Vinnie Mac have dialed down his power walk to the ring a little bit?
When Vince said that Donald Trump was from the "hit show 'The Apprentice' ", did he miss the overnight ratings and how poorly the show did in its debut on Sunday?
How great were the fans for crapping all over the crappy Rosie-Hump stuff that WWE heartlessly subjected us to?
And how great, and I mean GREAT, was the TNA chant that followed?
Even more, how doubly GREAT was the "We Want Wrestling" chant?
Will WWE EVER listen to the fans and realize how little they appreciate garbage like this?
How can Vince McMahon sit at ringside, hear the fans hate that garbage and not try to improve his product?
Doesn't it prove that creative has a mean streak when they give us a rematch from the PPV and it has to be Chris Masters?
When JR pushed WWE.com as the place to get the latest news, don't you just know that he wishes he could mention his own website?
Shouldn't someone tell WWE that it's called a "quadriceps" muscle, with an "s", even when you are only referring to one of them?
Did I really hear Randy Orton taking credit for putting out HHH when all he did was take a spinebuster?
So, who is going to end up helping Shawn Michaels next week?
How does Shawn have a DX shirt that has a cross in the middle?
I mean, isn't that oxymoronic?
Why did JR guess that Khali was 7'3" when they said he was earlier in the show?
Doesn't come across as goofy when the announcers have to say, "Who is Estrada motioning too" when everyone in the building knows who it is?
