The Paul and Stephanie McMahon Levesque child has arrived, and during RAW, that’s no less of a McMahon/Triple H family entrance into the world. Congratulations to the super couple and here’s hoping that Aurora will fall in love with the family business as Stephanie did growing up.
RAW was pretty good this week, all things considering, with the last minute changes not hurting the storylines or the show. Shawn being solo was cute, and it’s sad that the only people he can face are the Spirit Squad, the McMahons and Coachman. This will change however, now with the emerging top heel entering the main event picture. Umaga was able to be the top heel of the night by punking out Shawn Michaels at the end with a nice Samoan Backdrop and then Shawn’s selling of “the thumb.” Since he wasn’t mentioned once during the show, it was obvious Umaga was the only major heel left not to be apart of the show. When Vince returns next week, he can finally build himself a alliance that’s not just consisting of male cheerleaders.
Hulk Hogan was the top face of the night, receiving that old school reaction that tells Hogan’s ego that he should never leave. Randy Orton comes out and plays his role, second in command in the storyline, and Hogan looks good in front of the “you can’t do no wrong” Ohio crowd.
John Cena was our entertaining recapper of the night and it was great to see Ric Flair in a main event spot on the show. Props to JR for giving it a big time feel, really adding to the story in the ring. There was no doubt that Nitro would be the one to take the pinfall, since WWE can’t afford to have Edge, Cena or Flair look weak. I’m enjoying the Flair/Foley promos and they are doing a wonderful job spreading it out so when it happens again, fans will get a good payoff out of it. I don’t really feel this match was about Cena and Edge in any way, I felt their role was more to support the Flair versus Foley’s Boy with Foley’s Friend cause. Seeing two women at ringside, only brought me how that would have happened if the Four Horsemen were still around, with the late Elizabeth and Woman.
Shelton Benjamin and Carlito continue to deliver the strong midcard matches, and the crowd was solidly into the match. They are setting the example for the WWE in work rate and I would love to see them in a Summerslam Invitational against the Cruiserweights of Smackdown.
I did get to watch the Great American Bash on Sunday and I thought it was pretty good, considering Lashley wasn’t able to compete and Great Khali wasn’t wrestling like advertised. The strength of Smackdown remains their midcarders. Their tag team championship match is how I feel the tag team division should be on RAW. I also enjoyed Shane Helms and Matt Hardy delivering a great match, both men who have the chemistry to work strong matches with each other.
The speciality match with the Big Show and The Undertaker was slow, but I wasn’t expecting a fast pace match up at all. The structure itself was different, but my only complaint about the match is the lack of the use of weapons. With that said, I hope we won’t see that match again because it was more so made with Khali in mind.
Batista and Mr. Kennedy was intense and a lot rougher than I expected, but it definitely elevated everyone involved and protects Kennedy from taking a loss with Batista getting disqualified. Chavo’s heel turn on Rey Mysterio Jr. was obvious and I think has the possibility to be compelling with their history, but that means the Eddy references probably won’t go away anytime soon. King Booker gets his sixth World Championship title win and plays his role so well. Is he only going to be warming the belt for the Animal to return to the very top?
Iain’s Anti-Pulse this week is superb this week, with his great Desert Island question. I will have to answer that question someday soon, but in the meantime, see (and read) his great picks.
In celebration of the birthday Triple H and I share, along with the birth of their first child, I am including a youtube clip of Triple H getting Punk’d on MTV. Entertaining stuff:
Don’t forget to listen to the newest pro wrestling show called Pro Wrestling Advocates, a new free form wrestling talk show from 1 to 4pm EST with Renegade and Poppa G, for more information visit www.xradio.biz/lasvegas. To call in on Sunday, the local number is 702-253-7070 or nationwide 1-866-431-7070. I will be on for my weekly spot in hour number two. Last week we discussed our top twenty sports entertainers and top twenty wrestlers of all time and much more! Voice your opinions, they want to hear from you!
Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Please support the War on Apathy with Curve Magazine that I’m involved with (and get involved) at http://www.myspace.com/waronapathy. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
