This is one of those Raw’s were the feedback that I have been getting is off the charts. With just a few exceptions, most of you not only loved the show, but many of you thought this was the BEST Raw in a very long time. I know I really liked the show and I was thrilled that the Showstopper returned. Usually after a strong pay per view Raw suffers, but not this week Raw kept the momentum going. And the Grand Rapids, Michigan crowd came off very well in fact they were almost as good as we were the night before, remember the keyword is almost. Okay seriously they were a very good crowd and now let me get right into the show. I will start with the one big segment that I did not like at all.
And that segment would be Snitzky vs. Val Venis. Why? Also the William Regal, Coach segments dealing with Hornswoggle McMahon didn’t exactly do it for me. I can’t say that the segments were God awful but I wasn’t exactly laughing. But that was it, now on to the rest of Raw. And of course I’m going to do this out of order. London/Kendrick vs. The Highlanders was good but I have to be honest and say I just couldn’t get into this match. Maybe it’s because London and Kendrick are too high flying and fast to get stuck with the Highlanders or Cade and Murdoch. Nothing seems to be clicking when it comes to opponents for Paul London and Brian Kendrick. As I said this wasn’t a bad match at all but the interest wasn’t there.
The women’s tag team match with Candice, Mickie and Maria vs. Beth Phoenix, Melina and Jillian was a much better match than what we got the night before with Phoenix vs. Candice. I really enjoyed this match and Candice looked so much better Monday night in the ring than on Sunday. She looked like the Candice they we have all become use to watching. Santino Marella was as obnoxious as usual and because of that I again enjoyed him. He came off so well disrespecting Lillian by calling her Jillian and his song bashing Austin and the Condemned was juvenile but still funny, but what a nice way to get Austin involved. You just know Austin will stun the hell of this guy and the fans will love it at Cyber Sunday.
John Cena gave one of his very best interviews since coming to Raw. Cena came off so natural and down to earth that I really enjoyed watching him. It breaks my heart to see him out and injured, but I think it was a smart move to get him on TV Monday night. His appearance was a way for his fans to see just how well he seems to be coping with things. This was a very well done segment by Cena. My match of the night? I think most of you emailed me with this match as your match of the night as well. It was Mr. Kennedy…..Kennedy vs. Jeff Hardy. This was absolutely fantastic to watch. In my opinion Jeff Hardy brings the very best out of Kennedy when it comes to wrestling; and the longer that this match went on the better it got. This was one hot match and I hope that Kennedy and Hardy’s feud continues, which I believe it will.
The opening for Raw was good. You had Mr. McMahon the ego maniac all smiles over his new champion, Randy Orton. Now I’m repeating myself but I know a lot of you and other fans on the net are not happy with Orton as the WWE champion. But when Vince introduced him as the new WWE champion I smiled. And London/Kendrick vs. The Highlanders was good but I have to be honest and say I just couldn’t get into this match. Maybe it’s because London and Kendrick are too high flying and fast to get stuck with the Highlanders and Cade and Murdoch. Nothing seems to be clicking when it comes to opponents for Paul London and Brian Kendrick. As I said this wasn’t a bad match at all but it just didn’t hold my interest. Vince’s idea to have every WWE superstar come out later in the show to congratulate and shake Randy’s hand was something I wanted to see. You had to figure something big would happen during that segment. And I liked the whole Hunter/Vince interaction with Triple H demanded a re-match for the title. This came off well and I knew as soon as Vince agreed to make that match it wasn’t happening. Vince waited until he left the ring to change that title match to a handicap match with Orton and Umaga vs. Triple H. This match would lead to a big surprise at the end of the show. As far as the handicap match? I liked it very much. I think many thought that Triple H was going to take both guys out and leave as the winner, but that wasn’t going to happen. Hunter took a massive beating by Umaga and I have to tell you I loved watching this. When Raw came back from the commercial the ref’s were helping Hunter walk to the back. Hunter sold this all very well and once he hit backstage he had Vince in his face demanding that he come out and be the first one to shake Orton’s hand. This was another good segment and JR and Lawler throughout added a lot by playing up how badly beaten Triple H was.
So the main event was the big segment with Randy Orton being congratulated by his peers. Of course Hunter never made it out there and Vince tells Randy to go to the back and drag Hunter out, and just as Randy is walking to the back I am starting to think could Jericho be coming out in his place. I can’t say I was close because it wasn’t Chris Jericho but none other than Shawn Michaels. His music hit the crowd went nuts and so did I and Orton started to walk back to get away from Shawn. This was a dynamite segment with Shawn getting the best of Orton by spearing him and then super kicking him. It’s only fitting that HBK should have been there since Orton took HBK out back in May. The Icon is back and I loved the ending. Now the only thing that I questioned and I’m still questioning is why the hell didn’t Shawn come out and help his BEST FRIEND Triple H when Umaga was brutalizing him? See that made no sense to me, but maybe next week on Raw something will be said.
This was a terrific ending and now it’s official, WWE is giving us the HBK/Orton feud and Hunter is back with Umaga. Now I’m sure many of you read that the ratings for Raw really plummeted and I’m not sure if it’s because of Orton’s title reign, but I’m thinking it’s possible. So I think that next week with Michaels back and facing Randy Orton ratings will start to go up, it’s going to be interesting to see if that’s what happens. I don’t think you could ask for a hotter feud right now. Okay I will be back over the weekend to talk smack. See I’ve always wanted to say that. I will leave you with the following request. I am selling some older WWF/WWE Coliseum and home video wrestling tapes. If anyone is interested you can email me at bigredpoppie@yahoo.com.
TheWrestlingVoice.com is having its annual voting for its Hall Of Fame. They will be inducting 5 of 1 nominated male workers, 2 of 6 nominated tag teams,
2 of 6 nominated promoters & personalities, 1 of 3 nominated women workers, and (new in 2007) 2 of 6 wrestling matches. Voters will pick 10, 3, 3, 2, and 3 respectively for each category. Voting opened on September 15th and will stay open until October 15th with the Class Of 2007 being announced on October 20th! Even more, with the addition of the matches category, TWV is offering the option of downloading each of the 6 matches that are nominated for this year’s induction class. To vote just simply click a href=”http://thewrestlingvoice.com/information/hof/”>here. Please help participate and spread the word as this is the only Wrestling Hall Of Fame out there that
relies fully on fan participation & votes.
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