| I agree with Denny 100%. Raw last night was a pathetic attempt to capitalize on last week's awesome showing.
First, opening the show with the Highlight Reel was all good and fine, but, like Chris Jericho said, he should have had Kane as his guest. As nice as it is to see Stacy Keibler on TV, she is useful in that capacity regardless of the segment. So, why waste the start of the show on the incredibly boring and poorly executed Test/Steiner angle? Talk about killing crowd heat early. Plus, it's pretty obvious that they have no clue what to do with Jericho anymore, since adding him to this joke of a feud does nothing for him. Turn him face and give him a run at Haitch.
Great. No Stone Cold. Strike Two with 1 hour and 45 minutes left to go.
Goldberg squashes should have been happening two months ago when he debuted. Not now in the second segment of Raw. For those who watch Raw because Goldberg is on it likely turned off their TVs at the end of this short, predictable segment. Even people who don't like Goldberg probably turned their TV off anyways, because three reasons to not watch Raw within the first half hour is pathetic.
Christian vs. Booker was a good enough match, but I [b:post_uid0][u:post_uid0]hate[/u:post_uid0][/b:post_uid0] it when an authority figure (in this case, Eric Bischoff) comes out to change the outcome of matches. This wasn't a case of Christian screwing Booker T out of the title, as has been the whole story between the two up until this point, but rather was Eric Bischoff doing it. Will they capitalize on this next week? Doubtful.
Test/Jericho vs. Steiner/Stacy was the exact same thing we've seen in this awful storyline 100 times over. Aren't storylines supposed to elevate feuds instead of have them tread water?
The Women's Battle Royal was a novel concept, but I am with Denny in saying that putting the belt on Gail Kim in her first match is definitely not what to do. At least not in how the match was booked. Last night was the first time I've seen Gail in the ring and, while she did some good moves, she didn't do enough to add a "wow" factor to her. I expected for her to put on a show with Victoria when it got down to the two of them, but instead she did a hurricanrana, armdrag reversal, and a headscissors-like elimination. I would have much rather seen she and Victoria put on a great show, showcasing her abilities, and then have Victoria somehow pull off a victory, starting a feud between the two. Instead, she's about as credible a champion as David Arquette was. No doubt she'll prove me wrong, but as of now, that's how I feel. Side note: Jazz must have taken that kick hard. She was out cold.
Randy Orton vs. Tommy Dreamer. At this point of the show, I was glad I was watching the tape of it and could fast forward. I like Randy Orton, but this match was completely skippable.
La Resistance. Pressing Fast Forward again to get to high speed.
And the "main event". Having a World Championship match every week doesn't make it seem too prestigious, especially when the only reason why RVD was getting the shot (storyline-wise) is because Eric Bischoff was trying to make Kane jealous come out to the ring. Stupid. The match itself was pretty forgettable. Standard RVD offense. HHH is obviously trying to become Ric Flair now, as he is doing chop blocks, falling on his face, and doing figure four-like submission holds. Too bad he's nowhere near as good at it as Naitch. The fundamental problem with this match (aside from Eric Bischoff's on-the-fly match changes...again) relative to last week's Kane/HHH match is that you knew RVD didn't have a chance to win going into the match. The whole match served as a reason to get Kane out to ringside, and they weren't going to overshadow that by having a title change too.
Overall, a very disappointing episode of Raw following last week's solid show. For me, the most exciting part of the two hours was the debut of the Wrestlemania XIX Gamecube game commercial. Way to go WWE...your commercials are more exciting than your product. |