Raw is Pretty Awful

Results from WWE.com:

Sgt. Slaughter def. Nicky
Umaga def. Snitsky
Jeff Hardy def. Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro (new champion)
WWE Champion John Cena def. Edge (Steel Cage Match)
DX def. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, Viscera & Charlie Haas and the Highlanders (Texas Tornado Match)
Randy Orton def. Carlito
Mickie James def. Victoria

I watched this episode mostly through Picture-in-Picture as I was more interested in the Monday Night Football game since both my fantasy football QB’s were active.

Anti-DX Diatribe:
The night started off with a long DX Promo. I haven’t been interested in what they have had to say for some time now. Then I caught another glimpse of Vince McMahon buried in Big Show’s rear end. Yeah, that’ll get ratings. That’s can’t miss TV.

DX then went on to destroy the entire Raw Tag Team division for the 2nd week in a row and then proceeded to put no one but themselves over. That shot against Chris Masters was uncalled for and their numerous backstage skits were awful. Did I hear a Western Showdown music and see tumbleweed backstage? I know this is a TV show, but WTF? Seriously. It also looks like when Vince is off of TV he gets his dumbest ideas. Yes, let’s see Coach and a fat stripper again. Yet another brilliant idea.

I didn’t find out til this morning that DX wound up booking matches since they threw Coach out. When I saw the Spirit Squad dressed in women’s gear I figured DX must have somehow stolen their clothes (even though the Squad was fully dressed in their first DX encounter).

The Rest of Raw:
Jeff Hardy won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a very decent match. I am not sure I understand what the IC Championship will do for Hardy. On his first night back he challenged the WWE Champion, Edge. He’s had a decent push – so maybe he’ll elevate the title? I expect the multi-player feud of the IC Championship will be for Cyber Sunday. There’s quite the number of challengers for Hardy to face at the next Raw PPV. BTW – when Hardy put his hand over Melina’s mouth while she was screaming backstage, I thought he became a super-babyface. I had no idea Jeff Hardy could cut a promo. Maybe he is the next HBK?

I didn’t like that Victoria and Mickie James fought in the opening round of the Women’s Championship tournament. I thought they should be in the finals considering they are the two wrestlers left in the division. The Mickie James face turn has been abysmal – why is she a face? She shook hands with Trish? A video package would help before the tournament to let the audience know how we got to where we are. A lack of brackets just says the WWE is making this up as they go along.

The match of the night (except for that ending):
Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship in a Steel Cage. I really like this feud. These guys really work well together and put on good matches. The video packages really built up the match as somethng special.

However, once the IC championship changed hands, I was pretty sure we weren’t getting 2 free title changes on the same show. Way too much interference at the end and DX comes to the aid of Cena. Shouldn’t Cena be making fun of these two old guys? Hell, Cena made H tap at WrestleMania. No flack for that? Nothing?

What about the rest of the rest? Like the Umaga match, Sgt. Slaughter beating Nicky cleanly, and the unpromoted PPV rematch of Carlito vs. Randy Orton. Eh. Umaga beats the man who beat Kane up for a while. Logic dictates that Umaga will beat Kane :P. Slaughter beating Nicky – there’s 5 of them! Cheat, dammit! Carlito vs. Orton – when the hell is Carlito going to get a win out of this? This would be a feud if they exchanged wins every now and then. It’s just Orton squeaking out wins and Carlito looks like a chump.

Overall – a pretty lousy episode of Raw. Maybe Angle had the right idea of getting away from WWE.