Last night, WWE Raw was probably the worst televised wrestling program that I have seen in quite some time. There was so much wrong with that show that I was compelled to do something that I tend to shy away from; write a review of a televised wrestling program.
The show opened with Vince in the ring surrounded by the entire WWE roster. Now, we all knew that Vince was going to discuss his illegitimate child, and we are all supposed to care about this, but would someone explain to me why the wrestlers were supposed to care about this enough to appear at ringside for Vince to explain himself. Also, whenever the entire roster is requested to be at ringside for something, why don’t the main event guys ever show up? Wouldn’t that type of blatant disobedience get someone fired from any other job? Anyway, while Vince is explaining himself, Stephanie comes out, not because she wants to support or destroy her father, but because he insulted her one week earlier. Without that, we might never know that one of the wrestlers was Vince’s child.
From that point on, we were force fed an endless barrage of teases as to who the child might be. Vince left the ring staring at Kennedy and Mark Henry, and then we were given the possibility that everyone from Ric Flair (who is only 4 years younger than Vince) to the Boogeyman to Cody Rhodes could be the child. Beyond that, we were reminded for possibly the 100th time that Randy Orton is the “Legend Killer”, but this time not because he said so but because they showed short films of each man that he “destroyed”, even showing an RVD video despite the fact that RVD has not been with the company since the end of June. And even with all of these videos, we were still subjected to the same Randy Orton promo that we get every time that he opens his mouth.
Then we get a slew of bad matches where the outcomes are predictable as soon as the combatants are announced. We knew that Sandman was not going to defeat Kennedy and Snitsky was not going to lose to a low card tag team wrestler. The Cryme Tyme segment was cute, but the match was lousy and I can see why Cade and Murdoch had been relegated to Heat even though they are the tag champs. Besides that, if they are the champs, how good can the division be?
The build-up to WWE Idol did not pique my interest, especially when I see JBL & Michael Cole badly singing a Hall and Oates song. One more question, since Jerry Lawler was knocked out by Booker and JBL was in the building, why didn’t JBL take Lawler’s seat instead of Grisham? Anyway, speaking of Booker, the coronation was the only segment on Raw that was worth watching. King Booker is perhaps the best character (character, not wrestler) on the Raw brand and his segment saved a poor show from being a totally poor show.
WWE Idol was, in itself, as William described Jillian Hall’s singing “an abortion”. It was the biggest waste of television time in the history of televised wrestling. The Pete Rose segments at Wrestlemania were more compelling that this. The Billy & Chuck wedding was a more interesting event than this. I would rather have watched an event from the Diva search than this. Having a commissioner that is fixated with game shows cannot bode well for Raw fans if we have the past two shows to go by. The singing was bad and Santino Marella has no business being featured in anything other than a squash match. He got his title run, so his ticket to Heat, OVW, or being released should be coming in his mail very soon. What a waste of TV time. But I guess any opportunity to hear Ron Simmons use profanity is worthwhile, unless you are already tired of that too, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were.
The main event was a typical affair, and for the record, Cena did attempt to tag himself in just before the pin so the finish was legit. Cena pins Carlito, thus saving us from the ultimate match deciding confrontation between Cena and Orton. The match was a set up for the Summerslam PPV, but what ever happened to the eventual winner being pinned by the eventual loser? Has WWE done this too often? I guess so, but this would be better than putting Carlito, who has been lambasted for not putting forth any effort towards his career, into a main event when he clearly has not improved where the federation would have wanted him to.
The worst part of the entire night was the fact that, since WWE.com broke the story of Brian Adams’ death hours before Raw went on the air “live”, there was no mention of Adams during the show. Not a RIP picture at the beginning, no mention by Ross, and no video montage. I can’t blame Vince for being a bit leery because of the Benoit fiasco, but Adams was not a star who was going to get a tribute night. He was below the level of Sherri Martel, even though he did feud briefly with Randy Savage, but he still deserved some mention. A picture and a few words would have been sufficient, especially since it was determined that he died due to choking on his own vomit hours before the show went on the air.
I guess if your primary competitor puts on a PPV show that clearly illustrates that their creative staff is simply going through the motions, you are not compelled to put forth much of an effort on your behalf, but it would seem to me that his would be the best time to do so. When the competition is reeling, that is when you pounce (sorry Monty Br… er-r-r-r-r Marcus Cor Von). Vince must be feeling very generous in letting TNA off the hook the way that he did, but if this show illustrates his current frame of mind, with TNA giving less than their best effort as well, wrestling fans will be in for a really dreadful end to their summer and the remainder of 2007.
Send comments, complaints or questions to me @ ericej@netzero.net
Eric E. Jenkins is an author who has written a semi-biographical book covering the last 30 years in professional wrestling through the eyes of a fan entitled “Reflections of a Professional Wrestling Fan: My 30 Years ‘In’ the Business”. He is currently writing “Dead Too Soon”, a book chronicling the careers of and paying tribute to many of the wrestling stars who passed away very young.
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