RAW was in my “backyard” this week, a few hours away from me in Raleigh, NC at the RBC Center for a pretty hot night for the WWE. The energy was appropriate from the start with Edge and Lita kicking off the show to the disapproval of Carolina loving Ric Flair fans. Last time they were in the RBC Center was right when the rumors were just breaking out about how “Edge screwed Matt Hardy” (or Lita, depending how you reflect on the situation) – it was a little perplexing that the NC crowd didn’t remind Edge of their “love” for him the same way the Montreal crowd reminds Shawn Michaels about their “love” for him. Kurt Angle interrupting Edge’s lap dance courtesy of the hardly-wearing clothes Lita was a nice surprise and it was thrilling to hear the babyface pop Angle was getting against Edge. The idea of unifying the titles got the crowd excited and it was obvious there was no way they’d give a match like that on a live RAW, that’s a “save for the PPV buyrate” type match.
Vince McMahon interjecting himself by trying to screw HBK some more and since there is no way WWE can really afford to lose Shawn’s talents, somehow Shawn Michaels must come through the adversity especially if it’s going to lead to a Wrestlemania match with Mr. McMahon. Michaels and Angle put on a thrilling TV match with some nice spots throughout, with a lot of the good action did take place on WWE Unlimited and I’m glad that is something they are pushing hard for people to tune into. I’m really going to miss seeing Angle work with guys like Michaels on RAW, because they do bring out the best in each other, but it gives Angle a chance to help elevate Smackdown while Batista is absent. Angle’s entire surprise win on Smackdown really was appropriate because now both title pictures are fresh ones.
I’m glad to see Angle cutting cords with Daivari, this works in completing the babyface turn and hopefully will lead to Divari trying to stick it to Kurt Angle with possibly Melina’s assistance or a whole new stable of his own.
Chris Masters doesn’t seem that far away from a babyface turn in the future however his “last” Masterlock Challenge against John Cena did a world of good for his character, Edge’s and John’s all at the same time. Cena sold it for being a powerful move, Edge cheated to keep Cena from breaking it, therefore “no one’s broken the Masterlock” for Masters gimmick to maintain and Edge keeps the heat on him for messing with Cena. I don’t know how I feel about Cena bleeding what seems to be on a weekly basis now. I’m glad WWE RAW is no longer the John Cena Show but he needs to do more than bleed to get my sympathy. However, WWE is playing it smart by having Cena go against guys that the WWE fans so far will not cheer more than him. Eventually however, that could end up backfiring like it did with Angle.
The best storyline on RAW continues with Mickie James and Trish Stratus with a little bit of Ashley thrown in the mix. They all have the facial expressions down better than a lot of male talent before them and the use of having Trish tag Ashley first, creating heat between Ashley and Mickie, costing them the victory, was short and affective in continuing the story. I hope this is able to be stretched out until Wrestlemania for the big pay off, Mickie going after Ashley gives something for the storyline to do in the meantime as the fans get to see how Trish handles both of these women at the same time.
Sadly, I felt that Carlito’s promo was the most out of place spot of the entire night. I’m thrilled they finally reminded the audience that Carlito was the one that tried to punk out RVD “preventing him from returning sooner” on his Cabana, but it took him too long for him to get to his point. The one thing Carlito does not need is to feel routine because he is gifted in his promo work. However, this did give something for Kane to do since the WWE writing team isn’t interested in building a good tag team division much less defending the WWE Tag Team titles on RAW.
Shelton Benjamin’s mother may have had the line of the night when she told Shelton “just do the best you can” against the Big Show. Nothing too exciting here, Shelton’s mother is getting a bigger push than he is it seems. Triple H made his first and only low key appearance of the night attacking Big Show. I never would have guessed Triple H would be this low key right now but kudos for him for taking a back seat to the rest of the show and when the time is right, I’m sure he’ll go back to being main event/WWE World Champion again. If this is to be the case, I’d rather him come back monstrously as a babyface because he hasn’t been in quite some time.
WWE did a good job of building up the TLC matches of the past to promote the TLC Match of Ric Flair versus Edge for the WWE Championship. It reminded me a lot of when Trish Stratus wrestled Lita for the WWE’s Women Title in Charlotte and Lita pulled off the home state victory on December 6, 2004.
However it was not to be, but with all the out of this world bumps by Ric Flair and Edge, emotionally for this North Carolina girl, I wanted to believe that it could happen. I would have loved nothing more to see Flair pull off the “unthinkable” and beat Edge in his home state, in Flair Country, and carry the belt into Charlotte, NC. I don’t think anyone in the RBC Center sat down during the entire main event. He could easily lose it at the PPV and that would have been fine, giving Flair the satisfaction of having possibly his last WWE World Title reign take place in the Carolinas would have been rewarding emotionally to him, given all that he’s going through. As much as I love Ric Flair, it defies the imagination to see Flair take a incredible suplex off the ladder, much less have Edge dive onto him with a splash on the table. Edge deserves a ton of credit as well for the bumps he took, such as the fall onto the outside, where gravity places a big factor if you break your leg going over the top rope or not. Lita’s interference was just enough to keep Flair from “living the dream” again and at the same time help protect Edge as a credible champion by Flair not winning, since this was Edge’s first WWE World title defense. It was a incredible match that if somehow you missed it you really did miss something special that you don’t see too often and that’s putting it in perspective. Thanks for reading, feel free to drop me a line at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
