The Reality of Wrestling: RAW
By J.D. Speich
This week J.D. is going it alone.
J.D. Says: RAW needs some direction
It seems that the WWE homecoming show really was a homecoming. Since the WWE has come back to USA its storylines have resembled some of the major ones in 1998. The WWE is picking up where they left off on USA: in the past. It seems as though the 3 year stint on TNN, I mean Spike T.V. never happened. The ending to the homecoming show 4 weeks ago left more questions than answers as to where the WWE plans on going in the next few months. The biggest skit on the show was a segment between the entire original McMahon family (minus HHH) and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The segment came to a climax when Austin stunned the whole McMahon family. Hmmmm I’ve seen this somewhere before.
Since the homecoming show the McMahon’s have been a regular on Raw and have gone back to the same old stuff: stating that they run show, making big announcements that aren’t really big at all, and screwing people over. This past week on Raw it was announced that Stone Cold would fight Coach at Taboo Tuesday with the stipulation being that either J.R. gets his job back or Austin gets fired. This storyline has really been over done, its been done twice prior to now and is really getting old. This storyline really has to make people wonder where the WWE plans on going with this. Right now it seems like the WWE has no real creative ideas and is using this storyline as sort of a dead air type ploy to fill some time. After Taboo Tuesday ends it will be interesting to see if Austin will still on T.V. irregardless of the fact that he’s going to win the match despite the fact that the McMahon’s will try every attempt to screw him over. However, I feel that Vince and his family will remain on the air for months to come in order to try and keep ratings going. That should work well don’t you think?
With the WWE going back to 1998 storylines you have to wonder if the hiring of all those new talented creative writers was really worth it because it seems like WWE can’t come up with anything new. Take another storyline, the Cena/Angle storyline. In this storyline you have a feud between two popular stars and a general manager who is siding with the heel. I think this has happened before (the Austin/Rock feud). The only reasonable explanation I can think of for the way WWE is writing Raw is that they have realized how bad their new creative team is so they are giving them old material to work with so they can get used to how the creative scheme is run. I think that if the WWE had their heads on straight they could see that they have a number of storylines they could do. Right now I’m not having a problem with the way they’re using the Cena/Angle feud, that’s the only positive aspect of Raw that I see right now. However, if they wanted to keep Austin on the air after Taboo Tuesday, they could possibly bring him back for just a few weeks to plug his match with Hogan at Wrestlemania.
A wrestler that they need to put in the storyline for the belt soon, even though I hate to admit it, is HHH. I’m seeing that in the near future, at a Raw based pay-per-view, an elimination chamber match should take place. The participants of this match should be Cena, Angle, HHH, Carlito, Shawn Michaels, and Shelton Benjamin. The best way to finish this match would be Cena winning the match over HHH and Shawn runs down to make the save, but then turns heel and super kicks Cena. The next night, Raw opens up with Shawn explaining himself and saying that he wants the belt; then HHH comes out and says he was the one who finished second and therefore he gets the shot; then Edge’s music hits and reminds everyone, once again, that he has the money in the bank title shot and he thinks now is the best time to use it seeing as he was left out of the chamber match. Both HHH and Shawn don’t agree to this and tell Edge to prove he’s Mr. Money in the Bank by putting the contract on the line in a triple threat between them. Edge doesn’t agree, but Bischoff’s music hits and says that this is a great idea. The match takes place the next week on Raw with Shawn winning the match by pinning Edge. The feud between Michaels and Cena goes to the Royal Rumble where Cena wins the match. This sets up HHH winning the rumble and the main event for Wrestlemania is set.
The Reality Is…The WWE is at a creative peak. The numbers for Taboo Tuesday are likely to be as brutal as last year’s and that is not good news considering the horrendous numbers that the Bash, Unforgiven, and No Mercy have clocked in. The E’s best option right now is to rethink their approach and come up with some new material with the new year approaching.
