I’ll tell you as good as some segments were there were other segments that brought nothing to last night’s RAW. In fact a few segments were downright pathetic. But the strong segments saved Raw for me and I did enjoy the show. Instead of a few feuds being built up well I would have loved for all the matches that will be representing Raw on Sunday to have had some good buildups but that just wasn’t the case. I’m going to get right into what I liked about Raw, and then my list of the bad will follow.
Edge vs. Carlito was by far the match of the show. Not only did I again love watching the kiss between Carlito and Trish, but more importantly this was one hell of a match. Week after week we are getting to see a side of Carlito that maybe many of us many didn’t know he had and that’s his flair for wrestling. When I watched him last night I could actually imagine him being in title shot matches. More and more Carlito impresses me. And more and more putting him against Edge is such a smart move. I really don’t remember Edge not giving his all in matches and I can’t say he’s ever had horrible matches. And this was just another super Edge match. Last night’s show put the spotlight on Edge the WWE champion. The focus started when we saw the opening with Edge and Lita making themselves comfortable in the home of John Cena’s parents. We saw that cocky piece of crap Edge going through personal items of the house and finally slapping Cena’s father. Then Edge shined again when Lita took on Mickie James for the Women’s title match. There was Edge in Lita’s corner and just all pumped up watching Lita in her battle. And the spotlight continued right into Edge’s match with Carlito. I have to say this was the first time that I really felt comfortable with Edge as the champion. It just felt right. I would still like to see him Litaless, but last night this man delivered throughout the show.
And John Cena came through for me too. Probably because he didn’t do any mic work which is always a major plus for me. Along with that and the fact that he had a REASON to attack Edge during his match made Cena look like he had something going for him as well. This feud really got much needed heat going into Summer Slam and it was one of the bright spots on the show. And along with all of this I have to say I truly liked the Women’s championship match with Lita vs. Mickie James. Granted at times things got a little sloppy but considering Lita really hasn’t wrestled consistently for a long time I thought this one had a lot of action going for it. This was one of the matches where that Charlottesville, VA., crowd really came to life. And they were backing Richmond, Virginia’s Mickie James. This match worked just fine with me. And Lita’s win I expected. This reminds of the McMahon/Helmsley era in 2000 when Triple H and Stephanie both held gold. Now another match and feud I liked a lot was Ric Flair vs. Johnny Nitro with Melina. This match came off a lot better than I thought it would since I expected Nitro maybe not being able to work well against Flair since he’s on the green side. Meaning that he’s not a veteran and I thought maybe just maybe working with Flair would be intimidating. But both men looked sharp out there and prior to this match, Flair’s nemesis Mick Foley gave us another strong promo about his hate for Flair and just what he will do to him in his match. Foley running in and attacking Flair during the match came off well, and like the Cena and Edge feud this baby got a nice build up for Summer Slam. The only thing that I didn’t get. Where the hell was Kane? For a guy that has a match for the IC title on Sunday against Nitro I would have expected Kane to show up at some point. Again this is another typical WWE move. They make a match for a pay per view but don’t have both participants involved during the show. What a way to build things up, and it certainly shows how important Kane vs. Nitro seems to be with WWE.
Unlike the past the very recent past where I bitched all the time about an Umaga match against a jobber. I liked how this one played out. Sure it was a squash but with victories over Cena, HBK and Triple H I wouldn’t have expected it any other way. This was short and it was very much to the point. And this first hour was the end of a very entertaining Raw. From here on out it was downhill. I was so disappointed with the DX segment. Hunter and Shawn got this huge build up on WWE.com’s Raw preview that the guys have regrouped and they were ready for Vince and Shane McMahon. But all we got was a segment with DX and the McMahon’s saying nothing we haven’t heard already. This was a waste of time; so much more should have been done. Again as much as I want DX to stay around if the creative team can’t give them better material then what’s the sense? The only thing that came out of this I guess is that it looks like Umaga will some how be in there to help Vince and Shane get a victory against DX, but really I wanted to laugh and just have some DX fun last night and it never happened.
But even worse was the Mikey and Kenny vs. Hacksaw Duggan and Eugene match. In fact this was so bad that the only thing that appealed to me was having the Highlanders come out, interfere and give Eugene and Hacksaw the win. I think it’s just a matter of time before the Squad drops the tag team titles to Robby and Rory and if there is a good storyline involved this feud might be worth watching.
And finally Carlito vs. Edge without a doubt should have been the main event. Not Randy Orton and Hulk Hogan. Again I was pissed since Hogan has been off more than on and now he gets to end Raw. But let me tell you forget I’m not a fan of Hogan’s this is coming from my heart not from being a bitch. This was by far the most pathetic segment of the show. First I think the Hogan impersonator stinks, I’m sure there are guys out there that can do Hulk and look like him a lot more than this guy. Second, I hated watching Randy Orton get all worried and have that scared look on his face when the real Hogan came out. Third, Hogan as I said Sunday cannot move and that includes his arms. Watching him take out Randy but even worse the imposter was so bad and so shocking that I think the fans were shocked by all of this as well since they got very quiet. And finally when you see all of this and then have Randy Orton over acting over the damage that Hogan has just caused, well that’s really sad. I understand that this is what Orton was told to do but it’s so hard to look worried and angry when your opponent just doesn’t have it any more. As I said on Sunday, if Vince wants to bring Hogan in once in a while that’s fine. But last night should finally be the reason why he is only given mic work to do. He should not get booked in anymore matches or major feuds. This was atrocious.
There wasn’t a hell of a lot to excite me but the little that there was helped keep Raw from being a total bomb. Tonight I’m ready for ECW and the Ladder Match for the number 1 contender with Kurt Angle vs. RVD vs. Sabu. I would imagine this will be a pay per view quality match. I’m really looking forward to this one. I’ll definitely be back by Sunday with my summer Slam predictions. Feel free to start sending me yours and if I can I might have something out before the weekend.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
