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James Caldwell: This is Torch asst. editor James Caldwell joined by Torch Smackdown specialist Greg Parks talking Raw and Smackdown on this fine afternoon. Greg, how are you today?

Greg Parks: I'm battling a cold, but I'm ready and raring to go.

JC: Excellent! Well, not the cold part. You gave me a nice segue into the Raw brand battling common sense on last night's Raw. I thought it was a below-average show with a few good things sprinkled in. What was your overall impression of the show leading to the PPV on Sunday?

GP: I wasn't too impressed. The show really did nothing for me, I guess, until the main event. Legacy vs. DX was going smoothly until DX basically told us Legacy had no chance. Why are we supposed to be looking forward to that match then - to see DX get their revenge,
which has happened many times before against Legacy? I guess the ending was mildly intriguing, but didn't make up for the blah rest of the show.

JC: I really didn't "get" what WWE was doing with the sales pitches for the DX-Legacy and Cena-Orton matches. You're right on about everything seeming so backwards with DX and Legacy. Triple H just has to play that "too cool for school" character, which killed the build-up. And, John Cena conquered Randy Orton on free TV with a sweet little "drop you on a pillow" Attitude Adjustment. I'm all for making the audience feel good to make them want to order a PPV, but there was no logic involved.

GP: Right, my roommate even remarked at the end, "so does this mean Orton is winning on Sunday?" I said no, but I couldn't explain to him why they chose the ending they did. Orton is such a good heel, and he's doing it in spite of WWE's booking of him, not because of it.

JC: I didn't get the ending either because no one expects Orton to win on Sunday. It's just not happening. I liked the involvement of the Cell to tease that for the audience, but my goodness, why was Orton scared of Cena, why was Orton scared of the Cell lowering, why wasn't he glad the Cell lowered so he could take advantage of Cena being beaten up, why was Orton dead like a CSI crime scene after only taking an FU on top of the cage? Everything just defied any logic from the PPV build to the storyline to the behavior of the heel character. You're right that Orton is a great heel despite WWE cutting his legs out from under him week after week.

GP: I also couldn't get why Orton feared the cage being lowered. The only thing I could think of was it prohibited others from coming out and helping him, which he has been so reliant on in the past and it also gave him nowhere to run, which he tried to do I believe two PPVs ago.

JC: You have good, plausible explanations that WWE would be like "ya, ya, that's what we meant!!!" but the announcers weren't even going there with it. It was Michael Cole presenting Cena as the super-human force that could take a Walls of Jericho for over a minute, the Colossal Camel Clutch from Big Show, and then be fully recovered to make Orton scared. I don't know who thought that would be a good idea. If I'm Jericho and Big Show, I'm more pissed than anyone else.

JC: I want to shift gears and talk about Reverend Al for a second. How out of place did you think he was last night?

GP: He's got that kind of voice and demeanor that make up for how out of place he might be, but yeah, as if we didn't learn enough when he was on SNL, he's way out of his element doing these variety type shows.

JC: Exactly. He can use his voice to make up for his lack of awareness for the surroundings, but at one point he seemed to be thinking about finding his personal manager and giving him an earful after the show for not realizing what he signed up for. I think that line to Primo backstage told the story. We agree he was out of his element, but do you think he added anything to the show or took away from the show? Did he contribute anything?

GP: I don't really think he contributed anything, other than being the most booed host yet. His segments were largely inconsequential to the rest of the show. I'd make a joke about Mark Henry and MVP getting tag title shots on Sharpton's watch, but it'd be too easy.

JC: Oh yeah, that was easily predictable going into Raw. WWE is all about grouping the same "types of people" together to "appeal to the masses" by simplifying storylines by race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. I'm just surprised Sharpton would have gone with the storyline, but he probably wasn't aware of what was going on. His office didn't sound too aware in that statement released to Newsday last week either.

JC: What else jumped out at you from Raw last night?

GP: Nothing....I mean, it's like I watched impact. I don't remember much of anything that happened last night. Mickie vs. Alicia Fox was announced for the PPV, something happened with the U.S. Title because there's a match for that at the PPV, a long opening tag match, and the other stuff we discussed. That's about it.

JC: It was not a good show. Just seemed off on various levels. One final thing before we jump to Smackdown just because it popped in my head...Chavo punching Masters - What's going on here?

GP: Oh my, I did forget about that. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?"

JC: I don't know yet. I tried to rationalize that Chavo was only in it for The Chase, then once he had his shot at Hornswoggle, he decided it didn't have as much of a payoff as he thought it would have. I have no other explanation.

GP: Yeah, and Cole and Lawler didn't seem to be ready with one either.

JC: That's typical! Anyways, let's touch on Smackdown. Did you feel we got any more clarity on the Undertaker-C.M. Punk storyline or does it still seem like they've booked the unexplainable storyline of all unexplainable storylines?

GP: I don't think things were really clarified. Punk gave his usual interview, then had a normal one-on-one match with Taker in the main event. Not sure what the purpose of the match was, though. They didn't seem to know how to build this feud without giving away a one-on-one match.

JC: Fitting of the theme of today's chat where logic was apparently left at home. Yeah, it really doesn't seem like WWE had a gameplan for this feud going into Summerslam when they started it. I just don't see the reasoning to put a PPV singles match on free TV nine days before the PPV. Why even give away the mystique of Taker in the ring on free TV, ya know? I'm at a loss on that.

GP: Unless they wanted to make it seem like Punk had a chance at beating Taker on Sunday, with him beating Taker by count-out here. I don't know how much that helps him, but perhaps WWE thought he didn't have enough cred against Taker to this point.

JC: Yeah, I agree with you they definitely needed to make Punk seem like a threat because no one thinks he is right now. Following that (lack of) logic on WWE's part, apparently they thought Punk out-smarting Taker to get a count-out win would make him seem like a threat...when their match will be inside a Cell at the PPV when a count-out isn't possible. It just seems illogical again.

GP: Well, I guess they wanted to get Punk a win no matter how it went down, and without putting him over clean, obviously, this was the way to go.

JC: Good point. I think they could have done a tag match and have Punk do the Randy Orton heel routine of busting out the RKO on the champ out of nowhere to get the visual three count. Something like Big Show & Punk working together and Show does all the work with the KO punch, then Punk pins Taker.

JC: We'll wrap it up with a few other high points from the show. Drew McInytre getting the rub from Vince McMahon...what do you think about that?

GP: They must really think something of McIntyre, is what my immediate reaction was. He's got a lot to live up to now.

JC: Exactly. McMahon doesn't just endorse anyone on TV. It could also be the kiss of death like Matt Hardy's handshake after Hardy started "running onto the show" during the Edge storyline back in 2005. ... And, finally, Big Show vs. Batista. Was it everything you thought it would be and more?

GP: Pretty much. Hard to fail when your expectations are so low.

JC: Ah yes, very true. Perhaps that should have been our mindset going into Raw.

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