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.

Monday Night Raw: August 21st Edition

Edge opens the show with a new tile belt. I was hoping the Undisputed WWE Championship belt was coming back, but the Rated R championship looks alright. I’d rather not see Jeff Hardy in the main event scene, but at least he’s got (say it with me) direction.

The Bearded Idiots vs. The World Tag Team Champions, Spirit Squad
The USA chant was a bit odd since Duggan’s own teammates are supposed to be from Scotland. The Spirit Squad’s tag team maneuvers are refreshing. Nothing like a team acting like a team. Kenny still looks like he’ll be the break out superstar of the group. I’m sick of the face in peril tag team match scenario. How about some back and forth action? How about finding out that one team member is a better wrestler than the other? The double slingshot reverse suplex finisher – I’ll call it the Highlander Leveler.

Informercial vs. Edge
The Bowflex, McMahon DVD and the Marine movie poster? Alright.

Orton whines about losing to an old man. Then he is going to take on another old man (BTW, didn’t Flair and Orton already feud with Orton winning in his failed face turn?). Carlito vs. Orton – now that’s cool. Maybe Carlito can teach Orton a thing or two in the ring.

DX and the New Triple H (Where the three H’s stand for Ha! Ha! Ha!). So H is harassing his father in law? It’s odd seeing HBK as a sidekick. Nothing like vandalism by two guys who are fathers. Hey, howabout some wrestling. I’d like to see some wrestling.

Trish Stratus had a good showing against Victoria. A match that made Trish look strong – what a great idea. Trish has been booked weakly recently and she needs this kind of match. I’m glad the McMahons didn’t interrupt the match.

I thought DX had vandalized the WWE headquarters a month ago. Vince is hurt. Poor guy.

“You called me Vince” Segment with Mick Foley.

10PM Main Event: Edge vs. Jeff Hardy:
Why does Hardy have pyro? Is the WWE serious about this guy again? Edge gets heel heat on demand (he called for the crowd to boo him and they did). The Cena-Edge brawl, while predictable was fun. I enjoy that the WWE lets the main event guys go beyond the ring. I’m aware this kind of stuff was done before (with the Rock and Stone Cold) but it hasn’t been done for a while. After watching Edge get thrown into that body of water I thought – now that’s a champion. A heel champ should get his ass kicked. Cena is very good as an intense face and challenger. His title reigns should be kept short to keep him popular just like the Rock.

Kane vs. Nitro turned into Umaga vs. Kane. I assume that Kane spitting up blood was a work as the show would probably cut away if Kane was really injured.

Aside: The quality of commercials since Raw is back on USA is much better. The lack of energy drink and crappy video game commercials is very nice.

Diva Bathroom Break

The Marine Trailer: I’ve actually watched this on WWE.com. It’s over the top and could be a dumb action movie. That being said, it’s been a while since there’s been a dumb action movie so I think The Marine might not suck. Maybe I’ll cover it on my podcast, Killing Time. (Cheap plug).

Ric Flair vs. Orton. Ric Flair has already cemented himself as the greatest wrestler of all time. In his old age, he’s still having amazing matches. The fact that I’ve seen a Ric Flair ladder match and two hardcore matches shows Flair’s commitment to wrestling. He is a legend in the business and does not need to be a full time wrestler. Ric Flair at his age is still better than probably 80% of the roster. Orton needs to expand his moveset and borrow some of Carlito’s charisma. BTW: Anyone else notice that 3/4 of the Evolution members are now faces?

Kiss My Ass Segment = Main Event? I hate when a segment is the main event instead of a wrestling match. I assume that Melina will turn on Mick and allow Mick to turn face. (I wrote that at 10:53 PM EST). It would be interesting to see Vince act as a guy who runs the company. Vince should be a man who is forced to deal with crap since Vince would rather see some green than personal vendettas being handled. I say this because Vince would be an idiot to fire Melina – she’s money in the bank. So Foley kissed McMahon’s ass. Now what? Yup, the Melina turn.

Raw ends on a sour note. Bleh. This segment should have been the 10PM main event and the WWE Championship storyline should be the true main event. Looks like the WWE Creative was watching American Graffiti and not Mythbusters when they showed the axle being removed from that vehicle by a chain. Mythbusters proved that such a thing was impossible.

Vince screams like Mumm-Ra of ThunderCats.

SummerSlam 2006 Thoughts

Now I had said I didn’t want to pay for SummerSlam 2006 because the card didn’t seem too great. But then I got caught up in the SummerSlam hype. I actually attended the first SummerSlam with the MegaPowers vs. the Megabucks – so I’m a SummerSlam fan.

They got me to pay up the 40 bucks and I watched the show. Here’s my opinion on it: It was a decent show that was quite fun and set up storylines for a while. Did anyone else notice that every match (except the DX one) had the loser enter the ring first?

The night opened up with Rey vs. Chavo because no other match could open. I enjoyed the match and the two have very good chemistry. Chavo selling of Rey’s offense is believable and the two did not disappoint. I think their No Way Out match was better and no Vicki Guerrero interference would be nice, but all in all a good opener with some nice highspots.

Hogan/Orton was what I expected except for the finish of Hogan going over. It’s not like he needs to protect his spot so I don’t understand why he didn’t job to Orton. Hogan played the crowd excellently and he’s the smartest man in wrestling – I wonder how he would do as a booker (assuming he was no longer an on-air talent).

Show vs. Sabu was alright. I was surprised there was no interference by Paul Heyman or RVD or someone. The two didn’t work together that well and the match was sloppy in parts.

The I Quit match was more hardcore than the ECW match. Some crazy bumps had me cringing for both wrestlers. The match ended abruptly with Mick quitting to save Melina and quite possibly means that the feud will continue.

DX vs. The McMahons (+10): I enjoyed seeing Ken Kennedy getting such offense on DX. It would be nice to see a Kennedy vs. HBK feud since the two can be loudmouths very well. Since Kennedy is such a star on SmackDown! it’s only a matter of time before he is sent to Raw. Anyway, the match portion was weak, but I enjoyed seeing the McMahons using tag-team finishers from the past. I was disappointed they did not use the Midnight Express’ finisher. It also set up a Kane-Umaga feud to give both men direction.

King Bookah vs. Batista: Batista needs some conditioning work since he nearly botched the Batista Bomb. Bookah retains and the feud will continue. That’s good for SmackDown!

Edge vs. John Cena: Cena loses in front of his home crowd so Edge will do the job at Unforgiven in Toronto. I’m glad Edge successfully defended the WWE championship at such a major PPV. It was a good match and I still think that Edge is a great champion. He seems like he could lose any match to any opponent (take a look at his ladder match against Ric Flair or his recent match against Carlito). He draws good heel heat and fans want to see him get his butt kicked in the ring.

BTW: I also liked the interaction between the champions. It makes the two shows really seem like two different promotions.