A British Point of View: When does Old School RAW finish?

Well what a strange couple of weeks WWE has provided for us. First we had an Old School RAW, then we have Miz cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to capture the WWE Championship and then we have Sheamus winning the King of the Ring tournament.

Firstly I must apologise for my lack of columns in recent weeks. If you’ve been checking out the weather reports for the UK then you may be aware of some bad snow and winter conditions which has thrown us problems left, right and centre. We in the UK have no preparations for this kind of weather and seem to live in a bubble. As soon as we get some snow the whole world seems to end, anyway I digress.
 
The old school RAW was fun but to my amazement I thought I was still watching it last week when Jerry “The King” Lawler challenged Miz for the WWE Championship in a TLC match. Granted Lawler did a very good job of the situation considering he is no longer in his prime and made something that sounded ridiculous actually quite entertaining.
 
Even more ridiculous was the fact that Lawler was made to have been robbed of the Championship. Miz couldn’t even beat him fairly; this is usual heel territory but on this occasion perhaps weakens Miz as a champion to a point that shouldn’t happen?
 
Miz will need a clean victory over Orton to cement his status but we know that won’t happen. Miz won’t drop the belt instantly but WWE will fear that an Orton loss will make him look weak; hence interference will play its part. Gone are the days when a heel seems to win clean. Granted it didn’t happen all of the time but remember when Kurt Angle used to make all the face wrestlers tap? He even got Austin to tap (yes I know he was heel at the time but nobody else can say that he got that much rub in a company.)
 
Jack Swagger seemed to go through a period of time where he was being booked like Kurt Angle, making everyone tap out to the ankle lock. However, we now get Jack Swagger doing his impressions of the nerdy Kurt Angle that debuted with WWF in 1999 quite well with his “Swagger Soaring Eagle” gimmick.
 
Miz on the other hand is floating in Sheamus Championship territory at the minute and I pray that he doesn’t end up being a multiple time champion without actually ever doing anything.
 
The fact that Sheamus has won the King of the Ring just goes to show that titles and tournaments that were once held in high regard are now just mere props for storylines. It seems obvious that Sheamus has won this tournament to allow him to brag about being a King only for Triple H to make his comeback and get his revenge. Somehow and somewhere I’m sure I’ve seen this happen before? Oh yes! King Booker! How could I forget!? Come on WWE spruce it up a bit.
 
It shows a sad set of times when you have to bring out a classic tournament and to have a 2 time WWE Champion win it to promote a rivalry we have already seen numerous times this year.
 
Morrison was my ideal candidate for the tournament as this could have gone in with previous winners as a stepping stone to something great, instead we get a guy who has apparently already “made it” running round wearing a strange cape and horns which look like a 50’s B-Movie horror film asking for everyone to call him “highness!”
 
One thing that has had me in stitches has been CM Punk. If when the time comes for him to hang up his boots from the wrestling industry and he is not offered a headset then we will truly be robbed of a natural commentator. The man is quick witted, funny and has true knowledge of what he is saying.
 
As I have mentioned in my previous article. Punk is a natural when working within a PG rated environment. His comments directed at Alex Riley, John Cena and Laycool were classic.
 
He went from complaining about his iPhone, diet soda, wristbands and ended up shouting at Diva’s. Maybe it’s just the fact that he is saying different things every week and were not used to this because all we normally get is the script that Michael Cole is provided with, but either way I hope he is around to stay a while longer.
 
One other thing I wanted to mention was the sheer stupidity of Smackdown at the minute. I brought it up in my previous article about how I felt it was stupid that Edge had “kidnapped” Paul Bearer and somehow managed to get him back to the States in his wheelchair but the mere fact that this has now been going on for over 4 weeks is just ridiculous. Surely Edge and Kane must be frustrated with the storyline as it is making them both look redundant. Paul must turn up to every taping and think “Great, there’s that damn chair again!”
 
Kane is being made to look terribly weak with this and Edge with his pranks of killing Bearer looks completely stupid. I try to sit back, relax and not judge the product on doing things far fetched but on this occasion the angle has completely frustrated me. It’s not even like its one spot on each show; it is something that is currently driving the show with spots throughout the whole evening in between and during matches, stupid just plain stupid.
 
Amasing! I’ve just managed to call WWE stupid again and I haven’t even mentioned Santino and Koslov winning the tag team titles! Oh well…
 
You can get in touch at beansontoastuk@msn.com and follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/beansontoastuk or @BeansOnToastUK
 
Martyn.

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