The Raw main event was an abortion of booking. It is the most stunted and short sighted option possible for the three men who came to Raw from ECW. What occurred, for those of you who missed it, is that Randy Orton faced Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, and Mark Henry in a guantlet, in that order. He beat Bourne, Swagger walked out, then lost to a Mark Henry in what constituted a face-turn for Henry. What a waste.
Henry has been around for over a decade and while he’s finally good for his place, in no way should that place be as a top face on a top show. He’s slow and boring, and despite an initial face pop for beating up Orton, no one likes him enough to continually cheer his assault of headbuts and bearhugs. This could have all been so much better if either Swagger or Bourne were to get this push, without changing really anything else.
Flipping the roles of Henry and Swagger would have worked best. Henry could walk out and become something of an enforcer for Legacy. As weakly as they’re booked, they could surely use it. Swagger turning face then, bombing the hell out of Orton, creates a new top face who could feud with Legacy while trying to get up the card to face Orton around post-Summerslam. From there, win or lose, you have a top talent in a top role for the long haul.
If you want to keep Swagger heel, just flip Bourne and Henry. Henry could come out first, scare the crap out of Orton if that’s the FIRST challenge and lose in a hardfought battle. Swagger then does his walk away deal, and we have Bourne come out. After Orton was done laughing it up and the announcers get over that it was a miscalculation to have Bourne be third, Bourne could upset Orton with a roll up. Suddenly, he’d be the hottest new face since Chris Jericho beat Triple H. They could give him a title shot next week, create huge curiosity over whether they would pull the trigger, and then have Orton get lucky and cheat to win. From there Bourne gains new cache in the midcard and becomes the new Rey Misterio that they’ve been so desperate to make.
Of course, niether of those two were done. Instead, let’s push Mark Henry to the top, yet again, because that always works out so well.
