The best way to kick off RAW is with Shawn Michaels in ‘I can do what I want, when I want it’ mode and putting him on Carlito’s Cabana was a good move. Shawn’s the most fun when he seems unscripted. Why is Michaels working a program with Chris Masters I’ll never know, but apparently WWE has hope for Masters. Masters is way too green to be working a main event with Michaels and Ric Flair. Carlito has better mic skills than Masters so the push should be more toward Carlito but they both need more ring experience. Carlito’s finisher is a DDT and Masters is a glorified full nelson – they don’t have a move list to show their diversity or how to build a compelling match on their own. You know their careers are in trouble when they look scared when they put someone in a sleeper and JR has to build up the sleeper like it really knocks people out in the WWE era.
The ‘who attacked Ric Flair and left him overly bloody’ angle looked like someone hit him with a sledgehammer, I mean, looked like someone who had just been stabbed was completely overdone. It was obvious it would mean a handicap match for HBK with the obvious Ric Flair run in – I just wasn’t sure if Flair would all of a sudden turn heel on Shawn or vice versa. It’s still nice to see the two together, much more natural than Hulk Hogan and Michaels. It was even more surprising Flair didn’t do his Mule Kick during the Master Lock. The “Dirtiest Player in the Game” was selling the dreaded Master Lock.
Edge and Matt Hardy should have put that effort and performance they did on RAW on Monday, during their performance on Summerslam. It was a good match to watch as a brawl, and the crowd was into it. The spot at the end looked well timed and the obvious drawn out fake-EMT save Hardy and Edge from the sparking carnage. I’m not a fan of fake injury stunts in wrestling because of all the times they really do get hurt in sports entertainment.
In my spare time I like to go through old tapes, today I found a jewel of Arn Anderson doing a promo saying convincingly how you would have to kill him to stop him, Matt Hardy should ask Arn’s advice on how to do a incredibly believing “I hate you” promo. Another thing Matt should do is borrow a page from Brian Pillman, Brian during his last storyline in the WWE, would suddenly appear on the top balcony of a arena on a mic taking shots at Marlena and Golddust. Matt should do that during a middle of a Edge match to throw him off. Just some ideas WWE creative should try since they don’t watch tapes themselves apprantly.
Kurt Angle showing his intensity and spouting off his wrestling qualifications should by all definition of the word make him WWE champion next month. Cena can not in wrestling skill be a machine like Angle. Cena is very much the underdog and Kurt will end up carrying him through the match unless Cena steps it up. Fans can care about Cena but I think they care more about Angle. Cena would be much better off if he told the WWE writers to keep their interpretation of who John Cena is and let him freestyle his promos too. The ‘you’re gay but I’m not judging’ promos WWE likes to do on and off with Cena is so overdone and shows just how bad WWE’s creativity is lacking.
Ashley’s showing promise and is better on the stick than Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle combined. It’s sad they let her fall for their fake apology again, and she pretty much gets destroyed by Victoria, but welcome to the WWE I guess. I can only hope she’ll get wrestling training, she has a strong look to her.
Big Show is being packaged like Andre the Giant was, unstoppable and able to defeat two men like a special attraction match. I popped in a old tape today and it had Big Show versus Shane McMahon. Amazing how times change. Tyson Tomko versus Rosey was filler I suppose and amazing WWE even went there considering the giant current event happening now, didn’t Vince turn on the news before he approved programming?
It’s hard to keep my perspective on anything other than the natural disaster tragedy in the Gulf coast region affected by Hurricane Katrina. RAW has been the only show I’ve watched that wasn’t wall to wall news coverage. I live in coastal North Carolina and the reality is hurricane season is a highly stressful and unpredictable time for anyone near the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf region and what happened with Katrina could have easily happened here too. I know two people in that area, one I graduated college with who is in Baton Rouge for grad school, what a way to kick off your new school career. My prayers are with everyone affected, not only did people lose their homes and material possessions, some don’t know when they can work again, if their families are okay that decided to stay or couldn’t leave or if they have a home to come back home to in the first place. Please give anything you can to help that area out, there a ton of links out there floating around, I’ll simply plug the American Red Cross at http://redcross.org/.
Thanks for reading, take care of yourselves and feel free to drop me a line at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
