The Reality of Wrestling: RAW Homecoming
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich
It’s October. Fall is started to take form, the leaves are changing color, and RAW has returned to USA after three years. Last night saw RAW’s return to USA with its RAW Homecoming event. The show was a 3 hour 10 minute “spectacular” that saw WWE legends ranging from “Superstar” Billy Graham to Ricky Steamboat to Ted Dibiase sitting in the stands and had a pretty stacked card. How did it turn out? That’s for us to decide.
P.C. Says: The first half of Raw was fun, but nothing else
The spoilers and rumor boards actually lied to me tonight as Piper’s Pit, not Angle/Michaels began RAW. The segment, like the Wrestlemania one, didn’t live up to the hype with the guest (Mick Foley) being such a big name. The interview went nowhere until Randy Orton came out and ended up RKO’ing both Foley and Piper. Did I time travel to 2004?
Angle & Michaels was a great match, but not great in the way that I wanted. While it did start off hot and fast, it just felt like it was lacking the atmosphere, the mat wrestling, the crowd heat and the quality that made the first two so great. The falls were pretty creative in how they happened, but I was insanely naïve in thinking that Michaels was going to tap out twice in one night. The finish was one the crowd shit on, as did myself. A tie? In the blowoff rubber match? That my friends is the very definition of bullshit. Nevertheless, it was still a good one.
Like Mick Foley, Steve Austin has been able to channel his promo abilities into the realm of comedy. That was proven with his two comebacks in 2003 & 2004. Tonight, it continued as Austin cut a very good promo on Vince (with clips from the Austin Era to back it up) and ended up doing his thing. His thing being drinking some beers and stunnering the whole McMahon family. A very, very fun segment that had me in stitches at some points; this was a real testament to Austin’s ability to play to a crowd. Also, while Shane’s return was not only unexpected and welcomed, Stephanie’s wasn’t.
Edge and Hardy was the match of the night in my opinion. People will say that Angle/Michaels was and I totally agree with those people’s arguments without even hearing them. However, the difference is this: Edge & Hardy did live up to the expectations that I had for them. The match was fast, had plenty of fun and new spots (the Ladder Sandwich gets redone) and used the storylineâ€â€Âalbeit one that nobody has cared about since SummerSlamâ€â€Âto heighten the match’s drama. This match ironically was better choreographed than the Eddie/Rey match at SummerSlam, which scares me considering that Rey and Eddie are 20x the wrestlers that Hardy and Edge are.
Overall, this first half is a mixed bag with me as both matches were good; Austin’s segment was a knockout, and only Piper’s Pit sucked. But it all seemed a little flat, you know?
Match ratings:
Angle/Michaels-***1/2
Hardy/Edge-**3/4
J.D. Says: The second half of Raw Homecoming wasn’t good at all
The only upside to the second half was the brawl at the end between Raw and Smackdown. The second half of the show started of with HHH and Ric Flair vs Chris Masters and Carlito. The match was okay with everyone getting their spots in and ending with HHH and Ric getting the win. I gave the match ** for the quality and the aftermath. The aftermath being HHH turning on Ric with a sledgehammer shot. Then HHH continues his assault for about 5 minutes through the commercial break with HHH saying, “do you know who I am”, ” you of all people Ric, this is my house.” With the current events that took place it’s inevitable that HHH vs Ric Flair will be at Taboo Tuesday.
Next came the bra and panties match between the triple threat divas vs. Trish and Ashley. The match was about normal length for women (five minutes) with Trish and Ashley winning. I gave the match a ½* for entertainment value. This match definitely proved that Ashley can work in the WWE (sarcasm intended).
Then, we go to commercial and come back to Tazz and Cole here to announce the big Smackdown six man tag match. All of the wrestlers come out and so does Teddy to guest broadcast when, all of a sudden, Eric Bischoff comes out and says that Raw is his show and since Vince isn’t here anymore he’s going to put the lights out on Smackdown. The lights go out and the camera pans out to commercial break.
After the break Bischoff vs. Cena for the WWE title is next. We also find out in this time period has been changed to no DQ and that Angle is in Bischoff’s corner. The match lasts for about 7 minutes with Angle interfering along the way until he hits himself with a chair off of the ring and Cena hits the FU on Bischoff. Cena gets the 1…2…3… I give the match ¾*.
The Climax: After the Cena match Teddy Long comes out and states that what Bischoff did earlier made the Smackdown guys look embarrassing, so he says that the Smackdown guys are going to go gangster style on the Raw guys. Then the Raw guys come out and both sides start brawling to finish the show.
OHHHHHH, and for those of you who wanted to know, Hulk Hogan came out after the braw and panties match for like 2 minutes and plugged that it’s probably going to be him vs. Stone Cold at Wrestlemania, which is only good because that means that the rattlesnake is finally going to step back in the ring.
Overall the Homecoming show was pretty good and looked like a WWE pay-per-view more than a t.v. show, which is not saying much anymore. I give it an overall score of ***.
The Reality is…this show didn’t quite live up to the hype it was given. The one match that had a shot at being a MOTYC failed to deliver that quality and had an ending that is typical WWE, but enraged the Dallas crowd. However, hope still lies on the horizon. A HHH/Flair feud was more than likely started, Angle still has another title shot to take, Edge should more than likely be finally using that suitcase as more than a foreign object, and the build for the Austin/Hogan dream match at Mania has begun. Will the show do a good T.V. rating? More than likely it will, but it is unlikely that the ratings will stay at a higher than normal level. Bottom line: the E had a special night and may have gotten a special rating out of it, but that’s it.
