Opening of the Show: This was a good Raw, and it got off to a good start. That was one of the craziest openings to a Raw in along time. It was nice to see Jim Ross get a chance to do a farewell address to his Raw fans. Ross in Oklahoma City has to be one of the biggest pops a WWE employee can get right now. Ross went on for too long (the opening segment in general was very long), but he was good in his delivery. Of all the people to interrupt, Edge was not one that I would have predicted, so it was a nice surprise. Edge was outstanding. His promo was very good. It was good to hear him give an excuse to why he was on Raw. His taunting of the fans and the Raw roster worked well. Batista’s appearance was predictable, but good. He showed great fire in taking out his frustrations on Edge. All of this set up CM Punk cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge. That was a heelish move, so I was curious at the time how other’s would look at it. But since it was against Edge, the fans were very happy about it. There was a lot going on, but I can only assume the fans at home were excited to watch the rest of the show.
Santino - Mysterio: Rey Mysterio’s promo about coming to Raw was stronger than his farewell promo on Smackdown. I was expecting John Bradshaw Layfield to interrupt, but was pleasantly surprised when Santino Marella’s music hit instead. How can you not get excited when Santino comes out to talk? Santino was his hilarious self. I laughed very loudly when he told Rey “Maastrio” that he is not “the Batman.” The photo that he wanted to be on the cover of WWE Magazine was also funny. Rey gave the fans a chance to cheer when he gave Santino the 619. With a lot going on on the top of the card, it makes sense to ease Mysterio back into the swing of things with a mid-card program, and Santino Marella is a good choice.
JBL Declares Martial Law: I am intrigued by the fact that WWE went out of its way to point out that Raw does not have a General Manager. It is not the first time a brand was like a rudderless ship without an on-air authority figure, but those previous times were mostly ignored. I like the idea that JBL would declare martial law. It is interesting that he has his own security force that he has hired to help him get what he wants. I am curious to see how it plays out, particularly since it is something totally different and the GM position has been largely played out. I doubt it will last long, but I like the idea of going this route for at least a little while.
Jamie Noble: I love Jamie Noble. He was such an entertaining character earlier this year on Smackdown. He hadn’t been used much the last few months so it was good to see him getting face time on his first night on Raw. His interaction with Katie Lea Burchill was good. Noble’s threat to Kane was priceless. I loved his line about not stealing his Larry “the Cable Guy” tapes and his knock-knock joke. Noble is hilarious, but he can wrestle, so it was good to see him put up a fight against Kane. Hopefully the writers have something good in mind for him.
Jericho’s Promo: Once again, Chris Jericho delivered on the mic. His promo work has been great and it continued this week. He did very well in continuing to focus on the theme of Shawn Michael’s not being worthy of the fans’ adulation. He continued to put himself over as an honest man which set up his attempted cheating in his match vs. Kofi Kingston. I like that he challenged Michaels for a match at The Great American Bash. This has been the feud of the year so far, and a big part of that has been promos like this one from Y2J.
Punk Follow Up: WWE did a very good job following up on CM Punk becoming the World Champion. They showed a replay multiple times. Rey Mysterio congratulated Punk in his promo. Todd Grisham interviewed Punk who did a great job (then and right after winning the Title) of being excited about becoming Champion. I thought the interview could have come a little earlier in the show, but that is a minor complaint. JBL was very good in his challenge to Punk. He was right that Punk needed to prove himself in the ring with a top challenger after the way that he won the Title. Punk continued to be great in his acceptance of that challenge. Then, John Cena put Punk over as having impressed him greatly on his first night on Raw. This all lead to Punk vs. JBL in the Main Event, which was too short to amount to much. It was good that Punk won relatively clean, although I would have preferred if JBL’s security force had interfered before Cena and Cryme Tyme came out to even the odds. But all in all, WWE did a good job of making Punk seem like a star and making his Title win and defense a big deal.
RAW MISSES
McMahon Follow Up: I gave the stage collapsing on Vince McMahon a Hit, as I was intrigued to see where WWE was going to go with the unexpected “accident.” However, since then they have gone nowhere. I understand not doing much to follow up on ECW or Smackdown last week, or even at the PPV. But at Night of Champions, we were promised a statement from the family regarding the situation. As it turns out, the statement was just that the family wasn’t going to say anything about it. That’s not much of a statement. As stated above, I am intrigued by the notion that they are going out of their way to point out that Raw has no GM. But, there has to be a reason why the McMahon family, or the WWE Board of Directors wouldn’t put someone in charge. This is a minor complaint, but an example of how a good show had some issues that could have been addressed to make it a great show.
Jericho Disqualified: That was a terrible end to the Intercontinental Title match. I understand that Jericho cheated by hooking the tights, but that is the type of cheating that never gets a wrestler DQ’d. It is like when a wrestler uses the ropes for leverage. The referee will stop the count if he catches a wrestler cheating that way, but never DQ’s them. So why did this ref DQ Jericho? WWE has too many little inconsistencies like this in how the rules are applied (like when a 10 count is stopped by a wrestler rolling into the ring). Why not have Jericho angry over the ref stopping the count and shove him? That gives the ref justification for calling for the DQ.
Lack of Wrestling: My biggest complaint about this show was the lack of wrestling. I know this was an important show to introduce new faces to Raw, to introduce new storylines and feuds, and to introduce a new World Champion. I don’t mind there being less wrestling in general on this show. But the lack of wrestling was ridiculous. A better balance could have been met. There were only five matches, including Punk’s short Title win over Edge. The other four matches totaled about 12 minutes, for a 3 minute average. Mickie James vs. Jillian Hall was good while it lasted, but only 2 minutes. Then there was a very long period, three full segments, without any wrestling at all. Then the new Tag Team Champs squashed two jobbers in 1 minute. I am fine with a squash, but in 1 minute Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes can’t actually show what they can do. We haven’t seen DiBiase wrestle on Raw before, and he barely had any time in this match. Kingston vs. Jericho was a 4 minute IC Title match. Kingston needs more time to get over with the Raw audience. The Main Event was only 5 minutes. I liked this show. It was enjoyable and I look forward to seeing the follow up on many of the angles that were introduced. But, with minor tweaking here and there more time could have been given to the in ring product.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.
LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1039 (17 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller who attended Brock Lesnar's first UFC victory on Saturday night in the semi-main event in front of a record-setting crowd in his hometown. Keller's BBL looks at Lesnar's place in MMA and in what ways he seems more comfortable than ever... Bruce Mitchell's Memo examines the dilemma of Chris Benoit and the Hall of Fame... Sean Radican reviews the two latest TNA DVD releases... In-depth coverage of the TNA Hard Justice PPV including Keller's match report with star ratings and the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews... Jason Powell's "Page 2 Buzz" with scoops and insider analysis... WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire with insider news, big story analysis, and notebook tidbits... Plus Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week, and more....
