What’s up…let me get straight to my raw review.
This raw began with an amazing promo by Chris Jericho which didn’t surprise me cuz he always delivers. Mike Knox beating on Rey was really enjoyable to watch because Rey is boring. Stephanie McMahon is walking on the heel side of things which is good. Team Priceless going against the tag champs was average and I see priceless taking the titles away from Kofi and Punk pretty soon. So it finally looks like we have the stable we all been waiting for with Randy Orton as the leader and I am looking toward to this. Melina vs Jillian was ok and Melina looks very impressive and that new finisher is good. The segment with JBL and HBK was really confusing because now we all have to think that HBK is poor which we all know is a lie. John Morrison has a great future in the WWE and he is the next HBK and it was nice getting the win over Finlay ( Hornswoggle needs to get fired quick ). I was really dissappointed when Rey came back out to defeat The Miz and it didn’t
make any damn sense. Hacksaw Duggan needs to get fired ASAP. The main event was not good until Jericho, Rhodes, Manu and Orton came out and beat the hell out of cena. That DDT that Orton gave to Cena was the highlight of the night in my opinion.
P.S….Why is Cena a nominee for superstar of the year if he was injured for a long time and lost like at 4 PPVs and was pinned at WM24???? Typical WWE. Line of the night: “I pulled an Adamle” Stephanie McMahon.
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I thought Raw was pretty solid last night.
Started out a little strangely, though. Jericho’s promo was great, as usual, but it kind of ended without any normal air of finality…He just kind of stopped talking and opening credits hit. I wondered if he was maybe cut off or something, but I doubt it. Just seemed a premature end to the promo.
First match, Rey stopped in his tracks by Knox…liked it. I like this sort of hulking bully thing he has going on. I kind of cringed with Cole’s line describing him as a ‘nasty bully’ and sounding like the kid in the playground ‘snitching’, haha. But as far as the segment, I thought it went over well, and the way Rey slipped seemed very realistic, for a moment I thought the slip was accidental. Knox does look like a brute and I think this method of making him look huge against smaller guys is so much more interesting than watching 2 minute squash matches against random jobbers like has been the norm.
Tag match next and I thought it was good. I wasn’t quite sure about the finish, I guess I still have a kind of old fashioned mentality about heel teams winning more often on tv and the face wins coming later. But seeing as there isn’t really an ‘established’ feud here, more of a chain of matches where they cross paths every so often, it’s not so much of an issue. Even so I think the heels need to start winning a bit more.
DX christmas advert…fine. Think I laughed at Shawn’s actions. But really kinda throwaway as a segment, which is not good when it’s Shawn and Hunter. But I guess the tongue in cheek humour helps shift merchandise so I don’t mind it at all.
Jericho tries to sweet talk Kane and Kane teases being face. No idea what’s going on there. Perhaps a way of preempting the live crowd’s response to Cena in an effort to indirectly make him more of a face? That makes sense. I think I’ll rant for a few paragraphs if I explain the mechanics of it though, so I wont.
Jillian against Melina, short and sweet, the match I don’t especially remember. But the stuff afterwards was sheer gold. I was CRYING with laughter when Santino attempted the splits. There was something quite cute about Melina’s reactions to it as well, and usually I don’t find her cute…just hot. Ha.
After the break Santino and Goldust’s short segment was also a laugh out loud moment and I liked it alot. There is alot of comedy potential between Santino and Goldust. I hope it’s tapped into.
The JBL/HBK segment was a little drawn out I felt. Also Lillian announced a street fight during JBL’s entrance, and then JBL announced the ultimatum in his promo as if the match wasn’t official yet…In so far as the actual angle with Shawn being torn between ‘selling his soul or living the hard way’, I quite like the concept. It actually gives some reason for the feud for a start…But it also helps put over Shawn’s
I was very impressed with the Dolph Ziggler outing. To be honest, when I saw him come out as Batista’s opponent, I just had ‘Harry Smith deja vu’. I thought he was making his in ring debut just to be squashed…but he definitely wasn’t. Make no mistake, he was given a good showing. They obviously have some faith in him. His facial expressions also got him over well I thought. Not so sure about the Keneddyesque name repetition, but he uses it differently so we’ll see where it goes.
Why does Finlay come out to Hornswoggle’s music now? I just can’t take him seriously with it. Cringe time. Glad to see Morrison go over (also hate his music by the way).
The Stephanie faux pas was more than a mistake I think. Either a rib backstage or part of the Shane/Steph storyline…I hope so anyway.
Rey comes out for his match/wins. Eh. I’m always happy to see Rey compete and I always enjoy his work. But the fact he both came out and won kind of made me wonder why they pushed the idea that he might not compete at all. I’m guessing he is going to work through the tournament selling this arm injury, which begs the question of what to do with him afterward. How long do you sell torn tendons? Let’s hope this has some continuity because Rey has been given very inconsistent storylines as of late. Working ‘through an injury’ and coming out on top will do nothing but enhance his over-ness. But if it takes the TNA route and gets forgotten next week then it will be totally irrelevant.
Cena over Kane, not a surprise.I liked the fact that Cena wasn’t used until the actual match, because it kind off built his presence indirectly. That, and it gave inane Cena haters less to moan about. A good match all around I thought. The shenanigans after were a little perplexing. The idea of a 2nd/3rd generation stable has been on the table for a long time and tonight it looked as though Jericho was in on the party, which isn’t consistent with the potential gimmick, but seeing all 4 of them in a row, I thought they really looked the part. Only problem is, 2 of the 3 best heels in the industry (the other being Edge) in the same faction wouldn’t really work, since there would be no clear leader and sooner or later they’d capitulate over the world title.
As far as Cena being beaten down, it was one of those uncomfortable moments. I expect the anti Cena stuff but cheering a ddt off the entrance ramp just seems a little inhuman to me-eh. Whatever. Fans will be fans. The beatdown itself was kind of exaggerated and I really wondered what it achieved. Making Cena angry? Making the heels gel towards the same cause?
Overall, I enjoyed the show (despite my critiques, I think I have watched wrestling so long now that I can’t help over thinking things). Not the best but certainly not the worst Raw in recent times.
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Raw was finally watchable this week. After the last few boring weeks things are picking up. Starting with IC , Rey simply has to win it. Now i aint a rey fan but the belt recently seemed to be devalued. I remember when the IC title meant a superstar was on his way to main event status but recently it hasnt had any real great champions. There are alot of big names that we dont need shoved down our throats each week in the same cena,jericho,orton,batista matches. Why not have Kane in the tournament or Orton. Give the belt back the respect it deserves. Anyway moving on. Im not a fan of women wrestling but enjoyed melina coming back, it gives beth someone different to have a go with. Santino is quite simply the funniest guy in wwe. The should hook him up with Goldust as a tag team. We all know how funny Goldust can be.
Jericho has to win the title. I know there are thousands out there that love cena but how many times can a man win a title when they clearly dont deserve it. Out for months, comes back 1,2,3 wins title. Its so boring. Give cena a heel turn just to make him a little interesting.
Dolph put on good show against batista, think he will be quite impressive maybe at IC level.
hbk & jbl could bring up a good story. Time for hbk to go heel. He needs something fresh to push him back to the top. hopefully the writers have big plans for this one and not just a fight between them at the ppv.
Steph pulling an adamle was quite funny. Hope she turns in to the superbitch we all love to hate.
The end was great to see cena getting the living daylights kicked out of him. Raw badly misses HHH or Jeff or Edge. Hope the draft this year is a bit kinder to the Raw brand. Looking forward to next week , shaping up to be a good night.
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Last night’s Raw is what we hope for the show to be like every single week – SOLID. Melina’s in ring work since her return has been 90% which is great, unlike Candice who still can’t seem to get things right. A Melina vs Beth showdown looks to be in the works for Armageddon which should be great. Good to see Orton and Priceless finally come together, but it should be very interesting to see where Dibiase falls into this upon his return. They are going to use Mysterio’s arm injury or interfearance from Knox to get him out of the tournament so he doesn’t look too weak. Can someone please explain to me why WWE continues to think us wrestling fans care about wrestlers making movies? Thank god someone in creative has a brain and thought up something called a storyline for the JBL/HBK feud. It’s no surprise that Michaels’ career is winding down, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hang the boots up at Mania 25. He’s just now doing all the final things left to do, one of which is a match with JBL.
Batista needs to stop that bald look already, or maybe he’s actually just gone bald for real, regardless, he looked good in his match tonight, as did the debuting Spirit Squad leftover, Dolph Diggler. Newsflash – John Cena still has ring rust. Let’s all pray this isn’t permanent as that would be a tragedy. And I think its finally time WWE does something with Kane, whether it indeed is get him to put the mask on and actually mean something for the remainder of his career, give him some new tights for the first time in 6 years or whatever, but the guy is just starting to look stale once again.. what else is new? Overall a solid show, and yes, Jericho is the best heel in WWE right now. If Jeff hadn’t been suspended I would have considered him for superstar of the year, but instead its definitely gotta go to Triple H, the man has been at the top of his game for nearly the entire year. The rest have either been out injured for some time or in Batista’s case don’t deserve it as much as him.
By the way, Triple H vs. Batista next week? That can’t be, can it?
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Raw was actually ok.
Melina/Jillian Hall: Melina looks good. Wrestling ability and hotness. I love her new Finishing move. Hopefully Melina takes the gold off of Beth Phoenix’s waist.
JBL/HBK: I fell asleep during this waste of time.
Cena/Y2J/Orton: So glad Orton and Jericho teamed up on Cena. Nice to see Jericho get his revenge. That DDT Orton did to Cena off the stage was sick-looking.
Batista: He is an animal. Looking forward to him and Orton at Armageddon.
Kofi Kingston: he is so energetic. I could watch him fight anyone on the roster right now. He’s got some electricity.
Kane: What a joke. When was the last time, Kane won a Big Match? When was the last time, a wrestling fan who had any knowledge of the business, thought he might win a match against a main eventer? Vince needs to get rid of him or let him win the World Title and dominate everyone, like the supposed Big Red Machine that he is.
DX XMAS: Hate DX these days, but will admit that these merchandise selling DXers are pretty funny. No Kelly Kelly this week. That was a let down.
That is pretty much it.
Oh yeah. Stephanie McMahan needs to be on TV more and really throw her authority around.
RAW was actually okay. Usually it is so mind-numbingly crappy.
Oh yeah.
Santino Marella: He is Funny. I hate to see any Wrestler. Sorry. Entertainer. Hate to see them being used soley as a Clown, but Santino is hilarious.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
