So remember all the nice things I had to say last week about the 3-hour format of Raw? Is it too late to take that back?
But honestly, I don’t think this week’s was all that terrible but it felt like the ending swept the legs from under it. Maybe my stance on that has more to do with my hatred with Big Show and anytime I see him on top, I want to stab something. I know, of course, what WWE is trying to get at with the ending. Last week, Punk was standing tall at the end of the show, this week it’s Show and next week it’ll be Cena for the go-home (shocker). All of this done in the name of building up each participant in their match and it’s something that should be done on a regular basis. I guess, as stated earlier, my problem with all of this mostly would be Show’s involvement. The only legitimate reason I can come up with this booking involving Show is that they need someone who’s an absolute heel to counteract Punk in the grey area and Cena also counteracts with his absolute face status. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this match is essentially a heel-to-face scale with Big Show, Alberto Del Rio and Tensai on the far heel side, Cena, Kofi and Brodus Clay on the far face side. This leaves CM Punk, Kane and Chris Jericho in this middle section of character ambiguity. I believe Punk’s new heel-ish ways are for the sole purpose of not wanting two absolute faces against each other at Summer Slam but Show was brought in so there was some sort of a heel presence. I wouldn’t be surprised if after this whole thing with Cena is finished, Punk tones down the heel stuff and goes back to business as usual (at least until Rumble). I’m not saying that I’m predicting for all of that to happen, I just wouldn’t be surprised.
Something strange is happening…or maybe it just seems strange because it’s all happening at the same time. There seems to be chaos brewing with the talent as of late. All within one week we get AW’s poor choice of words, Tensai’s racist tout, Zack Ryder becoming further frustrated about not being booked on TV, JTG losing his last straw about the current state of how things are in the locker room and then last night, we get word Rosa Mendes personal battles through TMZ. I’m not saying that these are all related or trying to belittle the seriousness of Rosa’s situation but it seems like there’s a lot of angst/muck-running lately. I talked a lot about AW last week so I won’t delve into that anymore but I will say that I wasn’t surprised he was on Raw but I was surprised that he still had a live mic and implied that he didn’t care what people thought of what he has to say, he’s still here. With Tensai, I think the tout was a look into what buddies joke around to each other when no one is looking, neither guy thinks its racist and gets the joke but the outside world might think differently. You see, the problem with tout and twitter in a company like WWE is simple. WWE is a company that depends a great deal of controlling content. They put out their content when they want, how they want and to who they want and cut out content they don’t want the public to see (i.e. the post-Raw Shawn Michaels segment that features Undertaker actually having a sense of humor). The issue with social network sites is that there is no “WWE” between the content and the waiting masses. Of course, WWE can (and has) always step in when undesirable content goes out and the person that released it goes to a social network class or something BUT the point remains that a bunch of folks has already seen it prior to that. What I’m trying to say is that social media is great for us in the IWC but not so much for WWE (especially if their share in Tout goes south…which I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened soon). As far as Zack, that’s really just a part of the business. He’s not high up on the totem pole and so when there really anything for him creatively, they’re not going to just put him out there for nothing (like they do for Cena, Show, Orton, Mysterio, etc.). Its unfortunate given the push he got last fall/winter but such is the nature of the business. The JTG thing is what I’m not too sure about. It sounds like something that was against “their code” to ever mention or complain about but he obviously had enough of whatever it was and got on twitter and vaguely complained. I think his frustrations come more out from the same place as Ryder seeing as how he has had less than nothing as a singles wrestler. I’m not trying to say that there’s mutiny afoot backstage coming soon, I just think all of this is…strange, yes?
I assure everyone that Classy Ring Attire has not fizzled out, it’s just me and Joel have weird and hectic schedules lately (well moreso Joel) but we are still podcasting and you should follow us on twitter @CRAttire and join us there every Monday during Raw and for PPV’s on Sundays (sometimes I’ll be motivated enough to be on there for TNA and Smackdown).
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: “That Premium Rush movie…is that like The Transporter for hipsters? Like Transporter in Portland…The Transportlander?”
