You’ve clicked on a News & Analysis link yet again (or that beautiful image for N & A on our main page; thanks to Joe for that), and whether you like it or not, you have to sit down and read about my opinions on the latest in the WWE, including some news today.
WWE presented RAW this past Monday night on SpikeTV. The show received a mostly positive feedback online, and I’d have to agree with the consensus that for yet another week, they gave us an enjoyable show. It’s the usual bag with RAW — some good, some bad. Only as of late, the bad has been kept at a minimal, and there’s been none of the “really bad.” Well, at least in my opinion. RAW’s rating is in and the show scored a 3.4 final broadcast rating. That’s down from last week’s 3.7. For some interesting reason, the highest rated quarter segment on the program was a 3.7 and it was Shane’s match and post-interview with Test.
I like the way they’ve pushed Batista lately. He is definitely a major player, and WWE has went a new route with him. He is no longer the young muscled-up rookie who had everything done for him by Ric Flair. In reality, that still holds true, as Batista is indeed a rookie (in my book), however, his persona is one of a cocky refreshed heel. As it should be with any member of Evolution. It allows them to freshen their act up, and in the process establish a new star in Batista. He’ll be an important part of major storylines very soon from what I understand, so look out for him.
Speaking of Evolution, can you believe that even on his honeymoon, or away filming movies and doing God knows what, Triple H was still the main focus on the program. Wow. I’m very happy that Bischoff didn’t grant the belt to The Game yet again. That’s not how championships should be treated. I also think that it wasn’t the best idea to just have Austin give Hunter a title match. I mean, sure, as the previous champion he deserves one, but I just felt that the set-up could have been much better. I just have to mention yet again that Ric Flair is amazing. To do what he does at his age amazes me. He’s way past his prime, and he’s still the man. Every time he grabs the mike, I’m already into the segment before he has even said anything. Only a few people in the business can do that.
They did alright with the Jericho/Christian & Trish/Lita storyline. It’s leading up to something, that’s for sure. It seems that the more interesting relationship here is that of Trish and Jericho. Christian explained to Lita on RAW that the two have had history, so that adds even more to the whole storyline. I’m being dead honest with you when I say that I love that storyline. You just don’t know where it’s going to go, and checking out how they go about it is fun. They can get a very good thing going here in the upcoming weeks. One thing I’ve always noticed about WWE is that when they do “real life related” storylines, they can be quite successful when done right. And done right in most cases means to take it slowly. Just go back a few years ago and think of the Angle/Stephanie/Hunter love triangle storyline. They stretched that out as much as possible and at the end they got a great payoff. I hope they’ll take things slowly with Trish and Lita too, but I really don’t know if the writers have set an overall goal for the storyline. Back in 2000, the goal was set — to pair Steph and Kurt up down the road, and the rest of the writing was some good “filler” material.
Speaking of Jericho, big props go out to the King of Bling Bling. He has continuously shown this year why he’s the MVP of RAW, and this past Monday was no difference. His match with RVD was great… well, both matches were. I think that Jericho will make a great IC Champion, but at this point in time it’s not necessary, since the IC belt is what keeps RVD alive. They’ve teased a Jericho face turn for quite a while now (including the latest developments with Trish), and I can’t help but wonder if WWE will go with it eventually. Jericho played a face from his debut in ‘99 up to the latter part of 2001 when he became undisputed champion. He’s been a heel ever since. Just one change of character for the past four years. I think that tells you more than enough on how good a character he is.
Other RAW thoughts… I must say that so far I enjoy what they’ve done for Survivor Series. They’ve really hyped up the PPV well, and are trying their hardest to get the storylines moving on all fronts. It looks that Big John (Heidenreich) isn’t so great inside the ring. I still enjoy his character. There’s just some weird presence about him. I think we all know who Little Johnny is, and this could turn out to be a hilarious storyline, again if done right. Otherwise, it could go down really bad… It was great to see Hurricane in the ring yet again. It reminded me of the great push he was getting (feuding with Evolution, pinning The Rock) earlier this year, before he got teamed up with Rosie… What happens to Rosie now by the way?… I think after a month now, it’s quite obvious that Lita is nowhere near where the other divas are on RAW. That’s not to say that she’s bad at all. She’s not your Gail Kim who’s not secure in the ring, but she’s just not the Lita of old. She can still pick things up… Rob Conway looks great inside the ring. I enjoy La Resistance better when he’s around, although Sylvan does add some great color to the team. I hope he recovers soon… Is the Survivor Match at the PPV going to be great or what?!
Now to some news…
I realized that I haven’t done that yet, so I will go ahead and congratulate Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque on their marriage. I wish the two a great honeymoon, and of course, a life filled with happiness and great health. Whether we diss them or dislike them some weeks, they’re still WWE, and we love WWE. They are also the future of this business, whether that’s good or bad, so I think they all deserve our most sincerer wishes for a happy marriage.
Speaking of the wedding, it went well from what I understand. It was a close circle of people who were present and nothing major occurred. There was a little “incident” the Internet has reported that involved Michael Hayes and some singing. Whether it’s true or not is a whole different plate. I will say that Hayes is known for his notorious acts and behavior. Some people just never realize that they can’t cross the line of their wrestling character with that one of real life.
Rob Van Dam’s contract expires next summer, and the latest surrounding RVD is that his career with WWE will most likely end then as well. Many reporters are basing this on recent comments RVD has made about the company. My personal take on this is quite different. First off, I don’t think there’s a possibility WWE won’t try to resign him. Vince McMahon might act dumb, but he isn’t stupid. He knows whose name the fans chant and whose merchandise and finger foams sell well. RVD = profits, and McMahons knows that. Now if Vince could use that brain power while doing the booking, things will be much better. By the way, that would be the only reason for RVD to leave since he hasn’t been happy with the way the company has used him… as one would guess.
To clear up the confusion, the Ultimate Warrior is not returning to wrestling. It was a cheap promotional trick to announce the “return of the Warrior to wrestling…” video games that is. Don’t buy into it too much.
For all the Chris Nowinski fans out there, it looks like his condition isn’t getting any better. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, Chris has been out of action for quite a while due to a post-concussion syndrome he‘s suffering from — he gets very bad headaches when wrestling, and that has prevented him from stepping back into the ring. The latest update on Nowinski is that his condition hasn’t improved much, therefore his career is in jeopardy. I believe it was WWE.com who even suggested that he might have to retire early due to his medical problem. I wish Chris the best of healthy, and I hope that he’ll recover soon. Although he was still very green, he was one of the people on RAW who was willing to take whatever it takes to learn more about the business.
That will do it for this week folks. You can send your feedback to eddie@thebalrogslair.com. Thanks for your time! Have a great week!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie