[Deconstructing the Moveset] Hollow RAW

Columns

Anyone seen chrisjericho.com lately?

Think about RAW’s feuds for a second. Cena vs. Jericho just ended, Angle vs. Cena’s just begun. Carlito is waiting for RVD to come back, and Matt Hardy is continually getting the crap beaten out of him by Edge. And the women’s division is a joke and no real feuds are happening.

So what else?

Currently RAW has been focusing on a little amount of feuds lately, and that’s becoming a big problem. Not because we’re subjected to heels like Rob Conway and Chris Masters who haven’t established themselves in feuds yet, but simply as squashing guys like the Hurricane and Val Venis. this was the same issue Simon dean had before he was shipped to Smackdown!.

The Big Show was shipped to RAW as Batista left for Smackdown!, leaving him without what could have been a great big man vs. big man match. So in the meantime he’s teased a feud with Masters, crushed the Heart throbs and appears to be fighting Snitsky for a bit. Snitsky? Didn’t he just finish a feud over nothing with Shelton Benjamin, who lost his title to Carlito, who’s just in a holding pattern for RVD?

Wait a second, NONE OF THIS MATTERS.

There are no sustainable feuds going on in the mid-card. Matt Hardy and Edge is coming to an end in a feud that started as Matt Hardy vs. Kane. Shelton Benjamin has been floating without a feud for MONTHS. The tag team division has been demolished and barely recognized on television (yet they think they can bring in a new tag team and have people give half a rats ass?)

No one even realized Danny Basham is ont eh RAW roster, Kerwin White hasn’t wrestled a match that matters yet, Rene Dupree has been used once since he was drafted to RAW and only for moments. Where the hell did Tajiri go? Did Tomko die? Has Viscera’s angle outlived it’s welcome? Wait, waht are the names of that RAW tag team that looks kinda gay?

Here’s a news flash, THERE’S NO MID CARD ON RAW RIGHT NOW. It’s all crap and then you get to the marquee feuds. Besides the fact that I’m tired of seeing meaningless matches on RAW, this means that no one’s going to be moving into the main event any time soon.

This is an issue as soon as a RAW PPV comes around the corner. For instance, let’s use Unforgiven as an example. Outside of Hardy vs. Edge, I don’t think we’ll be seeing any re-matches from Summerslam, so we’re looking at a nearly blank slate for this PPV.

This reeks of bad planning from the RAW creative team. While this might not be the “busy” season for wrestling, a good plan for the mid card can help pushing this time of year along and into the Rumblemania hype season. Currently we’re given no real reason to care about anyone without a title or going for a title (and some people who have titles we don’t care about either).

This time of year we’re dependant on the mid card because by the time that the royal Rumble comes along, we shouldn’t know who the favorite is to win it all. By the time January rolls around, we need to feel like anyone can with that damn thing, and the best way to do that is to start elevating guys starting at Summerslam, or directly afterwards. Right now I see a barren wastleand in the mid-card, with no relief in sight.

Let’s hope the WWE picks this up before more people notice that we’re watching a hollow RAW.