I knew last week that last night’s Raw would be a hot show. How did I know? Well I would like to say that I can see into the future, but we know that’s not true. How did I know that Raw would be such a good show? I knew because I read the spoilers. Remember it was a double taping last week, and the only good thing about double tapings is that you get spoilers and last week’s spoilers really read very well. And it’s nice not only when a show sounds good when you read about it, but that it also comes off very well on TV. There were no negatives as far as I’m concerned, and unlike last week’s Raw which gave us a good first hour, and a very poor second hour, last night’s show was so good from top to bottom. I guess you know that I can’t wait to get right into the show and no I won’t have a list of things that I didn’t like which puts a nice big smile on my face, it’s all good for a change.
As most of you know, I didn’t get into wrestling, or should I say WWE until the end of 1998. Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man I knew of, I read a little about him, and of course any time he showed up backstage on Raw or Smackdown I recognized him right away, but I really never got a good idea about DiBiase and his gimmick. Well let me tell you the guy blew me away last night. He just rocked in the opening segment with his son Ted, and Cody Rhodes. For all of you that are very aware of DiBiase I know what I’m going to say will not surprise you at all, but the guy can talk, and when he talks you just can’t help but listen. He seemed so at home in that ring last night that I would have loved that opening segment to go on so much longer than it did. He was EXCELLENT and the more he was on throughout the show, the more I liked him. DiBiase during this opener set up two matches. He surprised Cody Rhodes by putting him in a match against Mark Henry, and of course Rhodes was not happy about that. And then he looked at his son Ted, and set up a match that would turn out to be a great showing for DiBiase Jr. against Randy Orton. DiBiase really said it all when he told his son that Randy was holding him back and just using him, that was the reason for the match. This opening segment not only made the elder DiBiase come off so well, but I feel this was really was the first time that Ted Jr. started to come out on his own. What a great way to get the show going.
And the next part really affected me in a good/sad way. When Edge and Chris Jericho walked out with their Unified Tag Team belts I got goose bumps. There was no introduction, no entrance music, just the two of them as serious as could be coming down for their match. In case some of you don’t know and this is what makes me so sad, is that Edge was reportedly seriously injured at a house show in San Diego over the weekend. Though it hasn’t been confirmed the tentative report is that Edge will be out possibly until January 2010 because he suffered an injury to his Achilles Heel tendon. As I said this isn’t official because WWE has not offered any news about this, but I would imagine that is because they taped this week’s Raw and Smackdown with Edge on both shows. I am hoping that the injury isn’t as serious as it is rumored to be, but if it is it just upsets me so much because I was really getting into Jericho and Edge tagging together. You couldn’t ask for two better heels to work together. I have no idea what they will do now with the match that was scheduled at A Night of Champions between Edge and Jericho vs. Legacy, but I am guessing one way or another Legacy will end up with the titles. This reminds me of 2001 when Triple H tore he quad shortly after he and Steve Austin became allies and teamed up together. That all ended as fast as it came together, and it’s sad that Jericho and Edge never really got to rule the shows for a while. There definitely will be a big void on Smackdown without Edge, but when he returns oh man it’s going to be BIG! So let me get back to Raw and the Unified tag team champions taking on the Colon brothers again. This was another good match, although I thought these four put on one very HOT match last week, but this was still very good. The crowd was as into it as they were last week, and the ending was the same with the Colon’s losing. Last week I really thought that Carlito was going to attack Primo for the loss; well I was a little ahead of myself. It all came to a head last night when Carlito viciously attacked Primo for losing again, and that’s not cool. I guess the apple spitting Carlito is back, and that could be a very cool thing. This was one of many very good matches of the night.
We got a solid backstage segment with Ted DiBiase Jr., and Randy Orton. Orton asked DiBiase what he was going to do about their match. Ted responded by saying that he talked to his dad, but his dad is stubborn. Orton then told Ted that losing to him on television would not accomplish anything. Whoa, that’s when DiBiase let loose and came back with “You don’t think that I can beat you?” Orton then told Ted not to let his pride get in the way that he’s the WWE champion and he was going to beat him. Orton told Ted if it was my father, and DiBiase got in Orton’s face and said quite frankly his dad was a hell of a better dad than Orton’s father and this all ended with DiBiase saying that he would face Orton and beat him. As I said this was like the Ted DiBiase coming of age show, this was really HIS baby last night. After this strong segment we got Mickie James and Gail Kim taking on Alicia Fox and Maryse. I happened to enjoy this match and it might be partially due to Gail Kim back in action and on TV. I was really shocked that it was Gail that got the pin on Fox, because it seems like since her return she’s usually the one getting pinned. So it was nice to see Gail get that win, I thought the women did a good job here and Maryse the Queen of bitches came off so well. She’s quite consistent when it comes to playing her bitchy role.
All the non-wrestling segments last night were really good. We got another one with The Million Dollar man and Cody Rhodes. Rhodes was trying to get out of his match with Mark Henry, but DiBiase wasn’t going to give in. In fact Ted got a little nasty with Cody and started knocking Cody’s dad, Dusty. He told Cody how he despised his father and that it’s a travesty that Dusty is in the Hall of Fame, but he isn’t. He demanded that Rhodes go out and face Henry or he would put polka dots on Cody. Ah I’m telling you this DiBiase gimmick is so good, and he was good enough to keep my husband interested for a while. I have mentioned this before but my husband isn’t into wrestling and sometimes he’ll sit with me for a short time and other times he won’t even bother. But he really was really into the Million Dollar Man and believe me that says a lot about Ted’s character. As far as the Rhodes/Henry match well In less than two minutes Rhodes took a beating and it got so bad for him, that he gingerly walked away and was counted out, giving Henry the win. I guess you could say that this match was everything that Rhodes thought it would be.
One of the best matches of the night was the Randy Orton/Ted DiBiase match. As good as DiBiase came off out of the ring, he came off even better in this one. As I said this show in my opinion made the young DiBiase a star, or at least it was the start of Ted becoming something major. He showed me so much last night, and I really think that he and Orton totally clicked and could have one great feud. This was just so good and watching Ted gives me hope that this guy has a bright future in the company and I think last night was maybe the beginning of DiBiase getting a push and going solo. And I have to also say that Orton was just as awesome and I just loved what I was watching.
Hey how good was MVP’s VIP Lounge segment? Oh it was very good. I cannot tell you how excited I am that Jack Swagger and MVP seem to be on their way to having a nice little feud. I loved this VIP Lounge last night. Swagger was very good taunting MVP, and MVP was never better hosting his show. It’s so hard for me to really go into MVP’s promo but it was so strong and I have to say that I was glad that Swagger brought up the fact that MVP served a prison term. Let’s face it it’s out there and why not bring it up? MVP’s explanation about why he was in prison was good and then he topped it all by saying he wants to tell his story to kids so that they don’t make the same mistake. This was just very intense and Swagger added so much to all of this. He not only put MVP down about prison but he also got him for not going to a “university.” Oh yes Mr. Swagger the All American American went to the University of Oklahoma, and MVP only went to Florida State. This was a fun segment and the two just gelled so well. For some reason creative really came through last night, I wish I could say that more often, but at least things really clicked last night.
I thought Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston gave us another good match. It’s really nice to see Bourne on Raw and of course you guys know that I am a big Kingston fan and each week this guy comes through. I not only liked this match but you know what? I didn’t even mind the Big Show coming out and destroying both guys, in fact I liked it. I thought this segment was done extremely well and if they want to make a triple threat match with these three guys at Night of Champions, then I say go for it. The main event was my match of the night. I am not one to want to see Hunter vs. John Cena that often, but man they both did one hell of a job last night. Not only was the crowd so into this one but also both men really put on a match as if they were working a pay per view. I had no problem with the way this ended with Legacy interfering and costing each guy a chance to face Orton at Night of Champions. The way it ended was the only way to get both Cena and Hunter involved in that title match against Randy Orton at the next pay per view. All I can say is that this was just fantastic and it was a great way to end Raw. By the way both Hunter and Cena did promo’s earlier on hyping their match and they both came off well, they were short but sweet and each one set up their main event match.
As I said there were no misses for me, oh wait maybe one. I cannot take Michael Cole at all. And Cole and Lawler still do not blend well at all. I constantly think to myself how much better so many of these matches would come off if JR were calling them. I’m very disappointed that Cole is still on Raw. He comes up with stupid things and he just doesn’t have that “IT” factor. Also where was the Miz? I don’t understand why he wasn’t on. Well other than what I just mentioned Raw was one excellent show. Okay hopefully I will return over the weekend with my Smackdown thoughts. Remember it’s kind of busy here so if I can’t get a column out you know its house related. Hey WWE just posted something about Edge having surgery today and it’s on the WWE website, so I guess what has been rumored is true. You will find it on the main page. I wish Edge a very speedy recovery.
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