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WWE Raw Reax #4: "I think the product is holding on with strings and living off its past success." Apr 22, 2008 - 2:36:39 PM
Jeff Leadbeater of Orlando, Fla - Torch VIP Member (4.5): Best Match: Eight-Way Tag. Worst Match: The entire KOTR except for the Final. I like the idea of Regal returning to action in triumph, but why waste the KOTR concept on it? Especially when all the matches were little more than five-minute spotfests? "Hillary" vs. "Obama" was more entertaining than the tournament, and that isn't saying much. I will say one thing: Umaga must be pissed that Hillary and Obama voted for the minimum tax increase that kept the American Samoa exemption. He must have friends at the StarKist cannery in Pago Pago that still get paid a few cents an hour.
John Hills of Monroe N.Y. (2.0): Best m=Match: The eight-man tag, which by the time it came on I was so sick and tired of this three hour long waste of time. Worst Match: That Hillary-Obama joke. Nothing for nothing this is why wrestling gets a bad name, They have all three candidates on the show with these horribly scripted lines that we all know that WWE wrote, but for the first time ever "I believe" they have candidates who are running for the President giving promos on the show and then they turn around with that garbage and crap all over it. Next week they'll wonder why their ratings are down. The King of the ring started out good but turned into a joke. Nothing against Regal because I've always been a Regal fan, but as soon as Great Kahli and Hornswoggle get involved it turned into a joke as there whole product has been as late and will probably turn more people away like they've been lately. I've been a wrestling fan for 25 years now and each week gets harder and harder to watch or even pay attention to and the only reason I'm still watching is probably out of loyalty, but every time it seems that they announce something special, you end up disappointed. Maybe it's just me, but out of everyone I know who used to watch wrestling I'm the only one left for the most part. I have tickets for next weeks Raw and don't even feel like going, it's just gotten boring and nothing seems exciting anymore. The last weekend when Flair retired was very good but what lead up to that turned me off also, I didn't even think WrestleMania was that great. All I can say is maybe it's time to get new writers or maybe Vince needs a break along with the whole family and get some good wrestling minds in and give them the ball to run with and see what happens and intervene only if something is over the top. I think the pruduct is holding on with strings and living off its past success because whatever is going on now just isn't working.
Shane McKinely of Danville, Calif. (4.5): Best Match: Punk vs. Jericho. Worst Match: Holly vs. Carlito. The ratings for this show are probably going to be abysmal. This show defintely tested the patience of the "newer" generation of wrestling fans. Solid wrestling action. Used to be that being King of the Ring meant something. Now it's just a gimmick, just like when Booker won in 2006. If this was a true contest, Hornswoggle would never be mentioned in this. It was all about Regal. Although building up Regal as a heel again is sound, on the whole this King of the Ring was very unsastfying. JBL's "New York Times" promo did make him a more credible contender. I didn't take anything from the political video packages. Politicans are well taught and well versed into appealing to any "specailized group/demographic," so it was akward. It's odd when you're used to hearing candiates talk about the housing market, the war in Iraq, solutions for the recession, and the rising unemployment rate, and then talk about something they probably have no clue about. I would respected them more if they said that they didn't watch wrestling or that TNA rules and WWE sucks. Something real. Both WWE and the political candiates came across as exceedingly fake in this. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the ratings dropped during Holly vs. Carlito match. When's the last time you been impressed with Carlito? I think that WWE knows this, but Raw's mid-card is at such a low point that perhaps they feel that they can't lose Carlito. Very medicore. If Carlito showed that he was a better worker (like he was three years ago) then I would get excited about the "International Superstars." As it stands now, if they win the belts, it will be a joke. Speaking about jokes the whole "Hilliary vs. Obama" match was somewhat comforting, in that everybody knew that it was going to be stupid. Perhaps they will show it on "Fox & Friends" and everybody will have a laugh. I understand the need for comic relief in the "ultra serious King of the Ring." I'm a big fan of comedy matches in wrestling (I enjoyed Striker vs. Finlay on the last Smackdown). But I didn't think that this needed to air. I also understand the reason WWE tends to avoid heavy topics because many people view wrestling as escapism and do not want to hear about the loss of lives or any other depressing topics. But I think that every wrestling fan feels that it would be nice if they did talk about real politics and not such pandering. I would love to see any wrestling organization try to treat politics in a realistic manner. But that's not going to happen in my lifetime. From 2:37 to 2:53 it was just wrestler's introductions with a commerical break. A standard main event. Tonight you had solid wrestling matches with Punk and Jericho. Everything else was a joke. To quote a phrase in the Roddy Piper movie "They Live," "Stay Asleep."
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