Hello to you. Welcome to the No Chance column, where we take some time to look at what our friends at the WWE have been up to as of late. I’m your host Joel Leonard and this week we’re going to look at potential. If I can say one thing about this week in Raw was that it showed quite a bit of potential. Not that I’m expecting all of the following to turn into successful storylines, this is the WWE after all. But With WrestleMania over, I think that the new stuff that is starting this week looks promising in most places.
But first, lets get the bad out of the way, and discuss where things went wrong.
Words cannot express how not invested I am in this Announcers feud that we have going on. What was one of the best buildups this year to WrestleMania, took an unexpected turn when it did not end at the natural stopping point at WrestleMania, with Lawler giving Cole a truly great beat down. Yes the beat down happened, but then for no explainable reason, the feud continued. And now we have to watch it all again at Extreme Rules. Why is that? Not to mention that I had always hoped, in the back of my mind, that this feud might bring JR back out, but not in the ring? Who is even going to announce this match? Everyone’s going to be in the ring?
Now, on to the more positive aspects of Raw this week.
The Divas are almost always given a hard time whenever brought up. Both on the internet and in real life conversations, I have heard nary a kind word to be said about the Diva matches or storylines in the WWE, usually calling them Bathroom Breaks at best. The thing is, WWE doesn’t seem to do much, if anything, to ever disprove this. The Diva storylines are bad and almost without fail bring a groan from any group that I’m watching WWE with. So for this week’s Raw to have some intriguing Diva moments, is a huge step in the right direction. First of all, the video of the doll getting beheaded was great.
My sheer hatred of “twin magic†must have been felt through the television, as Eve’s magic marker was a fantastic solution to the problem. Who cares if the Bella Twins still used “twin magic†and resulted in getting the belt? Just the fact that that the marker was used means that at least one Diva has noticed that they cheat the exact same way every single time. I don’t expect heels not to cheat, but I hate when it surprises others again and again. I was even fine with the backstage segment for the Divas this week where Eve yelled at her friend. This new storyline was intriguing at the very least. I’m looking forward to it for now.
Will all the hype that Sin Cara had received prior to ever actually appearing on the show; I had half expected him to skip the mid card level and head straight for the main titles. However, it seems that he will be staying in US championship territory for a while and that’s fine with me. I’m not at all opposed to the idea that a new wrestler (sorry, superstar) might have to wrestle (sorry, entertain) his way to the top level. If his match this week was an indication, then I think that mid-card is a fine place for him to be right now. The match had a few great moments in it but did not flow as a great match overall. And a few of the botches in the match didn’t help either. Still, the potential for the guy is apparent so there’s no real reason to not look forward to his next match.
But the star of this week’s Raw was, of all people, R-Truth. If you were to ask me to list superstars who were the most at risk of getting let go at the start of this week, R-Truth would have been in the top five if not leading the hypothetical list. But just one impressive night, and he’s back on the radar. My feelings toward R-Truth now couldn’t be more different than they were when I heard his music at the top of the show.
When Truth pinned Dolph, I was confused. After all, Mr. Ziggler was the only heel in the lineup. But throughout his second pin and his match with Cena, R-Truth changed. No longer was he a mid card trying to hang out with the other wrestlers like they were the cool kids in a high school, and he could be cool by association. This week, R-Truth took his first steps to actually being one of the cool kids.
I suppose that the interruption that lead to a “Triple Threat†was to give Miz a way to win without pinning Cena. Of the top of my head I can’t even remember the last time Cena lost in a one on one match without interruption.
Speaking of Cena, it seems that his heel turn is coming along slowly but surly. And his little tussle at the end of last night is just the next step along the road. While it still seems doubtful that the WWE will ever turn their main guy into a full-blown heel (I thought it was going to happen when he threw the already surrendered Batista off of a car) but you never know.
Unrelated Topic of the Column: I want to take a moment to talk about Edge’s sudden retirement this week. It’s going to be a very different experience watching Smackdown in the upcoming months without Edge there. Edge was one of the wrestlers that I would cheer for regardless of face/heel status. When I first started watching wrestling, I had to convince my parents that I wanted to turn away from our usual Monday night television to watch “fake fighting.†They didn’t get it and I’m not they due. But after a week or two, Mom was in the room and Edge was on the screen and she said the first positive thing about wrestling that I had ever heard her say. “He’s cute.†So thank you Edge. Thanks for all the great matches and thanks for getting my mom to watch wrestling. If only for a few minutes.
This has been No Chance, and what do you think about all this? Potential? Or disaster waiting to happen? Let me know in the comments below.
