I sat down to watch Raw with a good feeling. Last week had presented a pretty good show, even with all of the apparent confusion backstage. I ended up being sorely disappointed. We got to see Gene Snitsky pound on Eugene until William Regal made the save. I know that as long a Eugene has this persona it will probably be impossible for him to get a legit push. I wish they could tweak his character just enough to allow that to happen, for he is a really good worker who could certainly do more.
The next match was basically the same as the previous one, but with two different players, as Christian was victorious over Hurricane. A new (temporarily) problem solver came to the fore in the shape of Viscera, and he had his way, so to speak, with Hurricane as Snitsky did with Eugene. Shelton Benjamin intervened during this also, which set up a match for later on. OK, I guess I could have taken a snack break here.
The Simon segment was just awful, pathetic, horrible, insulting…need I go on? I think you get how I feel here. His little commercial breaks were bad enough, but then this? The WWE is losing viewers left and right and gaining more critics. They are firing more wrestlers than ever before, giving various reasons depending on where you read what. There is a negative feeling in the back as far as the wrestlers are concerned, and just hard must it be to go out and give your all when you are unhappy with the happenings around you? So what does the company do to try to boost those ratings? Use pitiful segments like Simon’s to attract God knows whom. I’ll bet that if they would ask the viewers to vote on this, they would be told to shove Simon from the show.
Tag Team Champions Chris Benoit and Edge faced La Resistance for the title, Edge did his normal ‘I won’t play with you’ act, and the belts changed hands, as La Resistance got he best of Benoit. Edge helped with the loss actually, since his distraction of the ref led to the double-team of Chris. In theory this was the only way to go here. Benoit and Edge could not keep the titles. They both need to go back to singles competition and I guess the way Edge acted was the best way to do it. I still don’t think that the fans are comfortable booing him – the heel turn hasn’t taken off as well as it could have. He will join up with Batista, Triple H and Snitsky at Survivor Series, and that could give him a bigger push to that side.
Shelton Benjamin had to go against Viscera. Viscera? Oh boy. I understood the dynamics of why this match happened, but for me it was a waste of time. Yes, Shelton won, but not a lot of interest for me, and I really like Benjamin. Short paragraph, but no more to say.
Chris Jericho, Maven and Randy Orton defeated Evolution, well, two of three members of Evolution. Triple H was a no-show, and at least they didn’t have Batista and Ric Flair show that they had so much power that they would win this handicap match. I’m really glad to see that Maven is getting used more. He seems healthy and has always been eager. As far as I’m concerned, he is the only one that came out of Tough Enough who ever deserved a legit shot at a run with the WWE, and it’s nice to see that he is holding his own. Y2J, the veteran of the trio, and Orton are very consistent with their performances, and that held up here.
Overall though, the matches fell flat with me. I really did enjoy both the Triple H promo and the segment between Eric Bischoff, Batista, and Flair. HHH saying “Without me, Raw is nothing!” is probably too true as far as he is concerned. He is a fabulous wrestler and entertainer, no doubt about it, but has his ego made him a legend in his own mind? Quite possibly, and that often is the beginning of the end for many that make that mistake. I loved Bischoff standing his ground against Flair and Batista, sticking to the match he announced for Survivor Series. He has Y2J, Maven, Benoit and Orton against HHH, Batista, Snitsky and Edge. (That’s right, no Ric, much to his chagrin.) The winners will have control of Raw during Eric’s vacation – four weeks. Each member of the winning team will run a week. This could really be fun, and I’m looking forward to this one.
As I mentioned earlier, the WWE has been dropping talent like hot potatoes lately, with Nidia, Chuck Palumbo and Gail Kim the latest three victims. I am not surprised with Tough Enough winner Nidia. I was never shy about my feelings with regard to her. I never liked her, and never felt that she brought anything at all to the table. It is kind of funny that apparently her boob job did her no good. Oh well. Sticking with Tough Enough for a moment, I did enjoy watching the show, but the version of highlights this year sucks. Why even bother to show us blips of these guys? We don’t know them, so who cares? One of the eight chosen felt it wasn’t for him and pulled out, and what a shame for that one person who did not make it and most likely would have stuck it out. There are no women now, since they have obviously been given their Diva search instead. I don’t like the Diva thing, but at least they are not trying to make wrestlers out of the girls. They have some good women athletes now that they don’t always choose to utilize, so why get pretend wrestlers? That I agree with.
I was in Las Vegas for the Professional Bull Riders Finals last week, and the Mandalay Bay was the host hotel. That was also the hotel that was holding the Mr. Olympia contest. I would have gone, but both events occurred at the same time each day, so I couldn’t make it. It was really fun though, to sit in the corridor between the PBR Fanfest – lots of shops and stuff – and the same type of thing for Mr. Olympia, and people-watch. Quite a contrast indeed; slender cowboys in great fitting Wranglers coming from one direction and lots of muscle with tight fitting t-shirts coming from the other. Something for everyone, and it was a lot of fun to observe.
Finally, one more word about the PBR Finals. Last week I talked about how tough both the wrestlers and the bull riders were, and mentioned that leader Adriano Moraes has torn his biceps away in the second round. Things did not look good for the Brazilian, but he came back in Round 4 to post a fabulous score of 93 to win the round, and rode three more bulls during the remainder of the competition. He ended up second for the World Title, but they just don’t come any tougher.
Be safe and God Bless,
Barb.
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