By Lee Stevens, PWTorch Specialist

Thank you for joining me again as we put Raw "Under The Microscope." If you are a new reader, this is not a complete recap of the show. This is simply a closer look at Monday Night, whether it's something I saw, something I heard, or something I thought of while seeing and hearing. I guess I should include smell, touch, and taste too. Perhaps after the New Year.

Big Red Machine on Campus

Kane vs. Shawn Michaels wasn't just a battle between former title holders, it was a match-up of former amateur athletes. Before the mask, Glen Jacobs attended Northeast Missouri State University, now known as Truman State University, where he still holds the record for highest field goal percentage for the men's basketball team. His 0.621 mark still stands from the 1988-89 season with the Bulldogs. For non-basketball fans, that means he scored about 62 percent of the time. That's much better than his scoring percentage in WWE and that's even including Katie Vick.

Seriously, it was good to have Kane apologize to Kelly Kelly before his match and even better that Stephanie McMahon ordered him to do it. I realize that earlier this year she mentioned that the wrestlers were big enough to work out their own problems, but in this the boss should have stepped in and she did. I'm not sure why Kelly Kelly would have walked out with him, but it was a nice follow up to something that was such a huge part of last week's show. Maybe Kelly Kelly knows what happened to Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

As for Michaels, his college career lasted about as long as Monday night's match, however he was a solid linebacker at Randolph H.S. in Texas and was the captain of the team. Michaels lost interest in college and started training to be a wrestler. Part of the reason could have been the quality of the Bobcats football program. In 2000, the team went 7-4, breaking a string of 7 straight losing seasons, including a 2-9 mark in what would have been Shawn's freshman year.

Loose ends

Even if you are not a fan of the whole JBL/Shawn Michaels saga, I was very satisfied with the Triple H appearance on Monday. Even if the questions were obvious, they were important and probably should have been addressed sooner. Yes, Michaels could have gone to Triple H for the money, but he explained why he didn't want to that and for now, working for JBL was easier to take than borrowing money from a friend.

It wasn't an extended appearance, but credit again for the second part of the Sim Snuka transformation. Of course he would want to be in The Legacy. It shows that Snuka is intelligent, is actually paying attention to what's happening around him and it gives an air of credibility to the stable. It shouldn't grow to eight people, but if this leads into a tryout process for Snuka and at the same time putting Manu at risk of getting pushed out, that could be entertaining. Too many times we criticize the WWE for missing things like this and this week, I believe they did a better job.

Good to see you again

Michael Cole mentioned the "storied rivalry" between JBL and Rey Mysterio. I'm surprised that they didn't go into even more detail. Rey was the reason why we didn't have to see JBL with his shirt off for several months. In 2006, JBL promised that if he couldn't beat Mysterio, he would quit Smackdown. Although it was actually an injury that put Layfield on the shelf, for storyline purposes, Mysterio's victory over JBL pushed the cowboy hat wearing stock analyst into the announcer's position.

Don't know much about history

Michael Cole did a much better job setting up the Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk match, reminding us how Jericho won the championship as a last-minute replacement for an injured Punk. Granted, it wasn't something from ten years ago, but it was something that needed to be addressed.

Mr. Kennedy made a movie? I hadn't heard!

The good news is that Mr. Kennedy's movie will be coming out in two weeks meaning that we won't see any other previews of the film. The bad news is that we have to survive the next two weeks. Taking a closer look at the footage tonight, I noticed that Steven Bauer is co-starring with Mr. Kennedy. You may recognize Bauer from his work alongside Al Pacino in the classic "Scarface." Pacino's portrayal of Tony Montana was part of the inspiration for the Razor Ramon character. Ramon would often refer to himself as "The Bad Guy," coming from a line in the movie, "Say goodnight to the bad guy." Yes, the more famous line is "Say hello to my little friend," but I think that was more inspiration for Heidenreich. If you understand that, give yourself 100 points.

Also featured in the promo for "Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia" were comments from the director of the movie, Tim Matheson. Did you recognize him? What if I told you that we were on double secret probation? What if I told you your GPA was 0.0, the lowest in Faber College History? That's right, Matheson portrayed Otter in Animal House. In that movie, being a Legacy was completely different.

Otis, My Man!

Actually, let's stay with the legacy theme. In the movie Animal House, Kent Dorfman got into Delta Tau Chi because he was a "legacy from Pittsburgh." His brother Fred had been a part of the fraternity years ago. Manu is a part of The Legacy because his father paved the way many years ago.

Just to make amends for last week, Pittsburgh is in Western Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley is in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Animal House was the feature film debut for Kevin Bacon who had a small part as a pledge for the Omega fraternity. He would go on to co-star in the movie "Diner" along with Mickey Rourke who is currently receiving well-deserved praise for his work in "The Wrestler."

Ouch

I don't usually enjoy when an advertised main event doesn't happen as promised, but I don't have a huge problem with Randy Orton getting the forfeit win over Batista. The same type of kick has kept Ted DiBiase off of TV for weeks, so bringing Batista back the next week with no ill effects would have made DiBiase look incredibly week. I realize that in reality, DiBiase is making a movie and Batista is nursing a legitimate hamstring injury, but for storyline purpose, The Microscope enjoys a bit of consistency.

The Microscope also enjoys another reason to watch a classic movie, so if DiBiase is co-starring with anyone even remotely associated with Animal House, we may have to revisit this again.

"Take it easy, I'm pre-law."

"I thought you were pre-med."

"What's the difference?"

Keith or Harrison?

We may have another movie reference, but it will be up to your interpretation. In the opening segment, John Cena and Santino Marella went face-to-face with the following exchange:

"How dare you?"

"How dare you, sir!"

Those are lines directly lifted from the Harrison Ford movie "Clear and Present Danger." More recently, the line "How dare you, sir!" has been used repeatedly by MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann, usually directed at President George W. Bush, who also appeared on Raw in a recap of The Tribute to the Troops.

Canada is just different

I remember the first time I watched a wrestling event in Canada. Most of the bad guys were cheered and most of the supposed good guys were booed. My first instinct was to question my memory. Did something happen during the last few weeks and I had forgotten? Did I miss several episodes? When the announcers mentioned that Canada was "just different," they're probably correct, but it's not necessarily a negative.

In the tradition of cheering heels Bret Hart, Lance Storm, and Edge, Chris Jericho was one of the more popular performers of the night and John Cena and Shawn Michaels battled for the loudest boos. For Michaels, this was a fortunate start to his business relationship with JBL. If WWE wanted Michaels to be booed initially, Canada is the perfect spot. It's amazing to still here "You screwed Bret" chants during his match, although this may have been the faintest since the infamous Montreal Incident. I'm not suggesting Canadian fans will ever forget, but at least on Monday night, most appeared to have moved on to something else.

That something else may be John Cena, who was booed at the start and finish of the show and the source of the more creative signs of the night. Among the usual entries with someone's name in large print directly over an arrow pointing downward was "We've Cena 'Nuff" and I believe I saw one that clearly stated "Cuck Fena." I'm surprised that one made it past the poster police.

You can't judge a country or even a city by the small segment of people who buy tickets to the arena, but in most cases, the Canadian fans know what they like and they aren't afraid to voice their opinions about it. If they get bored, they won't hesitate to entertain themselves, as they did on Monday by singing the Canadian National Anthem. Excellent.

Trish

I enjoyed seeing the return of Trish Stratus and I'm grateful that my first two instincts were wrong. My first thought was that Mae Young was going to come out as Cena's diva of choice. Then I was worried that Charlie Haas was going to be Trish Strat-haas. Thank you, Trish. It was great to see you.

Help

During the opening minutes of the Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk match, a man in the stands was escorted out of the camera's view several times. He was holding a poster which said "Dirty D Red" on one side and "Pasta Is Good" on the other.

Yes, pasta is quite tasty, but I still don't get the reference. Any idea, Microscope fans? If you know what either of those phrases mean, e-mail me, or leave a comment below.

Happy Happy

Thank you for taking the time to read The Microscope during the last few months. We've uncovered interesting details and introduced fantastic discussions, both trivial and serious. Even if you don't agree with me, I certainly appreciate your time. Whichever holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a safe and happy one.

Lee Stevens goes "Under The Microscope" for Raw and Smackdown. You can leave a comment for him below or you can e-mail him at GLStevens.Torch@gmail.com

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