The opening segment is perhaps the most obvious example to date of WWE ignoring the fact that what the cameras catch goes ON AIR and that wrestlers could conceivably use the footage as a defense for something (Trish's boyfriend "hitting on" Mickie being the prior example)....Trish/Victoria was pretty decent, with an acceptable finish....
Edge/Goldust was kept short, which isn't bad. I wish they'd give Goldust something to do- his gimmick is one that shouldn't be hard to write for and give something to do....The Trips/Cena encounter went about as expected, but it was nice for Cena to look smart in predicting Trips would have a sledgehammer under the desk.....
Michaels/Spirit Squad was nice, helped by the Squad's athleticism. I'm really warming up to their in-ring work....I like that we're to assume that Candice and Victoria gave Torrie the concussion, when it's probably Mickie, so she can team with Trish....Vince's reaction to Shane wanting to bloody JR was interesting....I'd like to see a 15-minute Shelton/RVD match....The tag final was smart in that they kept Trips & Cena away from each other.
I think a lot of the lukewarmness (?) to the WM hype is because WWE is giving half of their hype time to the returning SNME. Take this week's final angle of RAW- getting viewers interested in SNME, not necessarily WM. Granted, SNME is this coming weekend. But I'm surprised at the fact that WWE is giving these two equal time, rather than spending the majority of it hyping up WM.
Did RVD do the Van Terminator the first time on an ECW PPV or on a taped show? If he did it on a taped show, Joey probably hadn't seen the move done in person as he did the commentary in post production...
OverpusHHHed...Patterson was right...
"Win if you can, lose if you must, but in the end, always cheat..." - Jesse "the Body" Ventura
Maybe Joey just meant he had never seen Shane do the Van Terminator in person. In any case, the show was as bland as ever. I'm much more interested in the Smackdown side going into WM, since as other posters have pointed out, Raw is entirely too focused on Saturday Night's Main Event right now.
"He looks like a perverted roofer who knocks off early on warm spring days to drink beer and ogle teenage girls at the river, but wrestles like a man who actually cares about his job." ---DVDVR's Raven Mack on "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray
I kinda liked the show. Yeah, I knew HBK was gonna throw the "sample" on the McMahons. It was still funny. To be honest, I ffwd past the women's segments because they are painful to watch. Shelton/RVD was passable until the predictable finish. You know that HBK is gonna continue to get this Underdog Push where he whups anybody he fights UNTIL Shane interferes with his *magical powers*. (Hey, didn't that Spirit Squad guy just hit him with the same chainlink gate?!) Prediction: Shane will go over HBK on Saturday night by screwjob, but HBK will take out father & son (& possibly daughter) at WM. It really is sad that Goldust has nothing (NOTHING.) to do except job out to Edge, but at least it was mercifully short.-- And the signing & six-man tag was much better at putting over Cena. Trips had more to say, but Cena got the last word and Trips actually played some cowardly heel by blind-tagging Carlito back in to avoid facing Cena. Another prediction: Masters & Carlito will go over Show/Kane. They're just being TOO dominant and I feel like I'm being set up for a swerve. The Randy Orton thing seemed kinda scripted, but I can forgive them trying to set up SNME as long as the heels from each side screw their partners over. If Orton or HHH comes out of Saturday night as a tweener, I'll be pissed.
"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." - Nathaniel Borenstein
Originally posted by AngryJohnnyDuo, you really missed the boat by not naming this thread "Raw is Piss." Would've been an apt follow up to the "Raw is Ass" show and thread.
I didn't think of that. "Raw is Piss"? LOL!
As for the rest of the show, I can see Trish and Mickie at Mania, as well as Torrie and Candice. The latter match is what I can care less about. And what about Maria the Ditz?
Once again, Triple H wins the weekly feud face-off. He's nonchalant and arrogant while Cena is reduced to cliche shaky rage and growled threats. Maybe if Cena varied his delivery of the macho punchlines, he'd get more credibility with the male audience. Cena is simply not acting like the champ, and the booking underscores this. Last week's match with Big Show was handled as if, by beating him, Cena was proving he belonged in the main event with Triple H. There's virtually no emphasis on the old-school smart vs. strong angle with Triple H's cerebral assassin and Cena's Show-hoisting build. I'm getting that same vibe gleaned from the Matt/Edge feud: the bad guy deserves to win and enjoy the elevation.
As for the rest of the show, Trish is the best female wrestler I never watch. Everytime the diva segment pops up, my remote changes the channel out of habit. I did catch her comment to Maria about exercising in the hall. Maria did a great job selling the new sponsor (Bowflex) as Trish gently mocked the absurdity of it.
Still loving the Spirit Squad. I don't care if they win; I just wanna see them fly. The Shawn angle is boring me even to the point where I don't care to see Shane wrestle, a notion I encouraged here for a long time.
Playing the part of the determined challenger, RVD was in fifth gear last night. That may have been the quickest he's moved from spot to spot since his arrival in the WWE.
I'll TiFaux the SNME in case something impressive happens. Otherwise, eh. I'll go watch V for Vendetta a few times.
The Lovely Mrs. Tracker is saddened to see "GoldGut." Cripes, that set up for the Shattered Dreams/Lita distratcion/spear took forever. It may still be going on as I type this.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
I find myself enjoying the Spirit Squad in spite of myself. A bad gimmick can sometimes be tolerated if you can go in the ring (and they can). I couldn't help marking out for the piss thing, even though it was stright out of 1998. Much better show than last week. But why is Gagne going into the WWE Hall? Has it ever been clairified if this is a HoF for WWE, or just Wrestling HoF?
4 man booths should never be attempted again. Coachman can't shut up long enough to let someone get a line in. The opening segment was bordering on writing to impress Kevin Kelly's wife level. If they ever were trying to make me miss Eric Bischoff by overpushing the McMahon's they have been successful. Shawn has probably done more jobs in the last 2 weeks than he did post '93. Makes you think there has to be some sort of big payoff on the other end of this feud for him. Sad that Edge doesn't talk about winning the shampoo contract as one of the great Mania moments for himself. Who has to break the news to Lawler that there were AWA Champs after him? Never thought they would show Verne Gagne clips on McMahon programming. Will be interesting to see how many guys Verne tried to screw out of money through the years try to "chat" with him. And, hopefully they won't be serving any ice at the ceremony, as it will surely melt the instant the Heat Machine Greg Gagne enters the room. Build this toward Greg's shocking entrance into MITB2, a dramatic victory, and an emotional cashing in of the contract at the end of the night leading to The Greg Gagne World Champion Era finally commencing.
That might be the King's version of things. Wasn't he stripped of both titles after he unified them? In his mind, he never lost either belt, and any champ after him should have an asterisk. Just an idea.
Originally posted by rinbergYou know that HBK is gonna continue to get this Underdog Push where he whups anybody he fights UNTIL Shane interferes with his *magical powers*. (Hey, didn't that Spirit Squad guy just hit him with the same chainlink gate?!)
I think Shawn saw it coming and mostly blocked the door from hitting him with his hands before he then retaliated by swinging the door back into the Spirit Squad guy (Mitchell?).
Btw, that was an awesome bump that Spirit Squad member took from the cage door. It was if he was blasted with a cannon.
"Oh it's on like Donkey Kong." - Stifler, American Wedding
I thought this was the best Raw in...weeks. Which still makes it only an average Raw at best. The in-ring matches were a little better, and the out of the ring banter was marginally entertaining (especially the Bowflex bit...oh Maria, you had me at Extreme 2).
RSN, loved your take on Gagne and Gagne. I remember watching some AWA back in the day with Greg, and I think this is just Vince's way of saying "thanks for giving us Hogan...and Brian Knobbs too."
The biggest problem with this particular show was everyone stepping on each other's lines. The communication between the announce table and the ring was obviously flawed as there were several more instances of overlapping dialogue than usual. I'll take Joey Styles over JR every day of the week, but if he has to work with this, it's better for him to get out at this point.
Line of the Night (for sheer stupidity): Cowboy Troy on The Rated R superstar- "Sounds like he needs to buy a vowel, brother." Really, who gave him that line, Jerry Lawler?
Originally posted by redsoxnationWho has to break the news to Lawler that there were AWA Champs after him?
Yeah, his comment sounded odd to me too. I could have sworn that "The Living Legend" was the last champ before he bolted to WCW.
Originally posted by kentishThat might be the King's version of things. Wasn't he stripped of both titles after he unified them? In his mind, he never lost either belt, and any champ after him should have an asterisk. Just an idea.
You should read this (awastars.com), its the "new AWA's way I guess to try to discredit Zbyszko as the last champion by saying he might have been stripped of the belt.
So who is the real AWA Champion? Larry Zbyszko? Jerry Lawler? Their current champion who I don't know what his name is?
(edited by y4j1981 on 14.3.06 1217) "I shall finish the game"
Better Raw then it had been in a while, but eh...not really memorable. Someone mentioned them spending too much time on SNME and not on WM, but if you think about it, it makes sense. WrestleMania pretty much sells itself, I mean damn, it's WrestleMania. But if they can heavily plug SNME, and pull big ratings for NBC in that timeslot, would that not open the door to SNME happening more often? Just a thought.
Nice job of them addressing Shelton's mama being gone, because in the V2 home, that was question #1 durng his entrance. And I'm loving the little feud building with Shelton, Flair, and RVD now joining the mix. I would absolutely love it if they continue this even after the MITB2 match @ WM22.
I didn't even think about the possibility of Mickie James framing Candice & Victoria for assaulting Torrie until geemoney brought it up. They snuck it in so well I didn't even notice, and also adds a whole new meaning to the look Mickie was giving Trish as she walked away. Which begs the question, does Mickie use SNME as the stage to launch her assault on Trish, to lead into WM?
2 run-ins by Randy Orton in the past month, why do I have a funny feeling come lottery time, he'll be back on a RAW roster??
Glad they didn't do the predictable contract signing beatdown. Sometimes it's ok to do the unpredictable.
So a good Raw, and a nice buildup to SNME, which has JR coming back and probably tuning up for WM. Which makes me wonder, could they possibly do a JR/King/Tazz booth at SNME? That could be interesting.
Thread ahead: When We Were Marks: "But They Are Such Wonderful Lies!" Next thread: TNA loses primetime slot, but still moving Previous thread: He's BAAAAACK...Chuck Palumbo Resigns w/ WWE