Been a while, huh? Three weeks, I think, since the last N&V. I've just been busy. Work is kicking my ass, the weather is nicer and things in my personal life are keeping me entertained to say the least. I think come September I'll be more consistent with these columns, but for the rest of the summer I'll be working on a looser schedule.
What I have done in the meantime is created my own blog for a couple of reasons:
A) I thought it would be cool to have a place to talk wrestling, sports, entertainment and whatever.
B) I'll be able to use that space to post your emails, respond to them and talk about the other "hot" topics in wrestling.
C) I can let you know about future columns in there, or if I'm going to miss a News & Views one week.
The link to my blog is here: oratoryjohn.blogspot.com. I went with the Google supported blog because Google rules basically. Everybody is welcome. You don't need a blogspot account to read it or post a comment. Check it out if you're interested.
On another note, I'm aiming for the Smackdown Roster Evaluation to be done by next Monday. I hope! On with the column.
Raw Recap for 06/13/05
I haven't done a Raw recap in a couple weeks. Just been busy, or bored. Take your pick. If you're wondering, the Smackdown roster evaluation (which will include Angle and Cena) is coming hopefully before next Monday.
Stone Cold Court
We start off with Stone Cold Court. This was alright. I'm a huge Austin fan, but even I admit it's hard for him to fit in when he's not wrestling. Hassan spoke his mind, Austin said he gets a title match. Hassan went to cheat, Austin blocked it and Benjamin got the win. It's hard to use Austin these days. I think they did an okay job with it on this show. If they want to do an Austin/Hassan feud for the future, maybe an Austin match at Summerslam, then this could give it some legs. Austin didn't beat them up for the sake of it. He did it after the bad guys cheated and then he gave the rub to Shelton Benjamin by having a beer with him. He didn't stun Benjamin. He celebrated with him. It worked well. By the way, Austin's "I see sand people" line ruled. He's one of the few that could pull that off.
Backstage, Jericho is pissed that Bisch made Christian vs. Cena for Vengeance so he wants to do something about it. I liked this because it meant he was probably going heel later. Meanwhile, Hunter tries to find out who gets drafted. No luck.
Chris Masters challenge was next. Sergeant Slaughter answered it. He gave Masters a fight and put him in the Cobra Clutch, but Masters got out and won with the Masterlock. The most amazing thing is that for the second week in a row when the beaten man was fighting the Masterlock the crowd reacted the way they should. The move is actually over, it seems. Amazing.
LONG video of HHH vs. Batista two weeks before the match. If we see it next week too then I'll be bitching.
Jericho & Cena vs. Christian & Tomko
This was a pretty fun match with Jericho looking very intense in going after Christian. I really liked the way they isolated Jericho, then built to the hot tag for Cena because it made his first time as a Raw performer all the better. The finish was predictable with Cena cleaning house, Jericho taking out Christian and then Cena pinning Tomko clean with the FU in the middle of the ring. If Tomko was replaced with somebody better this would have been a solid match. As it was, it was just average. Post match was great with Jericho attack Cena "out of nowhere" and putting him in the Walls of Jericho. Heel Jericho, baby! I kinda wish there was a more subtle build to it, but that's alright. Jericho's back in his best role as the whiny heel, so it's fine by me.
Another Raw Diva Search is coming. Yes. One of the eight women that debut next week will have no specific job title and no specific role on Raw just like their idol Christy Hemme. The Diva Search: It's FANNNNNNNNNNNNN-tastic! (That's my sarcastic way of borrowing the NBA slogan saying that this sucks.)
Viscera, with his "girlfriend" Lillian Garcia, squashed Maven. Funny how Maven was the first Tough Enough winner, has been on the roster for three years now, yet Johnny Nitro, the third TE winner, already has had more success than him after being on the main roster on SD for a couple months. And yes, I still don't give a shit about Viscera.
Kane squashed Grenier. The third squash of the night. Yawn. Then Lita came out, thanked Snitsky for killing her unborn baby and gave him a kiss as a thank you because she's a big slut. Then Edge came out, they said they'd get married next week on Raw and they'd celebrate by Edge showing her his one eyed monster. I think Michael Jackson said the same thing to the kid he slept with last night after his not guilty plea. I guess Edge vs. Kane is happening at Vengeance too. Like I care.
Main Event Promo
HHH came out with Flair, did his usual "I'm the best" speech and called for the new Raw wrestler to come out. The next "randomly" selected superstar was Kurt Angle. Would have been hilarious if it was Funaki. They need to do that one of these weeks. Hype up some big name, then have it be some lower card guy and everybody just laughs at it. At least then you'd have more credibility saying it's a "random" show instead of getting top guys every week. Anyway, Angle and HHH rehashed the past a bit by mentioning Stephanie, then HHH saying he didn't care what Angle did with her because everybody had a piece of her. Oh, the hilarity of making a joke about his real life wife. What a comedian. What was hilarious was that they were both sweating a lot in their dress shirts due to the building. Batista came out, then we got a match for next week with Batista facing Angle. Then Shawn Michaels came out, challenged Angle to a match at Vengeance, he said yes and now I have a reason to watch Vengeance! WOO! Then the show ended with a big brawl.
I don't know how much I like Angle on Raw. Obviously he's a great talent who I feel has been the best WWE performer of 2005, but it really hurts Smackdown. I don't want to say it kills Smackdown because there's a long time to go until the draft lottery is done. I just like Angle and HHH on separate shows. Still, with Angle here it means Michaels vs. Angle is gonna happen again, so that's fine by me.
Final Thoughts
Bad show wrestling wise for the second (and maybe third if I remember correctly) straight week. Good stuff angle wise, however. Jericho going heel is good. Angle debuting is a fresh face for Raw to have and next week's Angle vs. Batista match could be pretty good. Still, I can't forgive three squash matches featuring two wrestlers who have no feuds going on (Masters and Viscera), as well as the same Kane squash match that we've seen a billion times in the past eight years. I miss the long, good wrestling matches that Raw used to give. Those days were good. Average show this week.
Match Results
Hassan over Benjamin via DQ - ** (Okay match for ten minutes.)
Masters over Slaughter - SQUASH (Was this even a match?)
Jericho/Cena over Christian/Tomko - **1/4 (Best match of the night, but just average.)
Viscera over Maven - DUD (Yawn.)
Kane over Grenier - DUD (Yawn.)
4.75 out of ten.
The News
I'm going to skip this section this week because I'm running late on this column and don't feel like adding more to it. Sorry. I'll talk about stuff on the blog as often as I can. I'm subscribing to the Wrestling Observer now ($13 for 5 issues is awesome!), so I'll definitely be up to date on all this stuff.
If I do the News & Views next week, this section will return for sure. Omitting it this week is a one time thing.
The Three Count
1. I have had lots of comments from people about HHH. Mostly, people who read my Raw Roster Evaluation thought I was too nice to the guy and they complained about his influence. There is some validity to it, I guess. Think about it: Benoit got hot, he moved to Raw with the flimsy "Rumble winner gets to pick the title" excuse that was never mentioned before. Orton got over as a heel with a lot of momentum, and they killed that off foolishly because he was in HHH's spot. That didn't work, so they used Batista as a last resort and they got lucky that it worked. Now that that toy is getting old, it's like it is time for him to get a new one to play with, so they give him the most over guy in the company in John Cena. Cena got over based on his own talents more than anything else. Before the JBL feud, he had no feuds that were even close to being great. Cena, in many ways, is a self made main eventer. To deny HHH's influence would be foolish. To me, though, it's not as bad as some of his detractors may make it out to be. At least he's not having bad feuds with Steiner, Nash and Goldberg like two years ago. That stuff was bad.
2. I'm amazed at how much Hassan is protected. For a guy who's just okay in terms of his ringwork, he gets a lot of protection. Batista didn't even pin him and that guy has pinned everybody in the last six months. The only thing that happened this week on Raw was Hassan cheated with a low blow, the ref didn't see it and Austin prevented the cheater from winning the match after he cheated. Hassan and Daivari got beat up like the cheap heels they are, but again, no pinfall. It was a DQ win. They get beat up all the time after matches. That's what always happens. I don't get the protection. What are they saving him for? Maybe Austin. Should be interesting to see if that goes anywhere.
3. The ECW PPV is a few days old now yet people are still talking about it. I think it was one of those shows that is going to last a while in terms of replayability (is that a word? It is now). When I get the DVD in a few weeks I know I'll pop it in right away and re-watch the whole show because I want to know if I'll like it as much then as I did when I watched it live. My guess is I'll like it just as much. It really was a good show. I regret some of my star ratings, especially the Guerrero/Benoit and Awesome/Tanaka matches because they were probably a star too high on each. Other than that, I stand by what I wrote. Great show in every way possible. Let's just hope ECW can live on in some way.
Reader Questions & Comments
Reader comments will be in yellow, while mine will be in white.
I am a huge fan of the Undertaker. I would like to know if you think he is going to retire soon. He hasn’t been around much and I know he isn’t as young as he used to be. If so, do you think they will give him the belt back and for how long.
I don't think the Undertaker will fully retire soon. He'll come work a month or two here and there, collect some PPV paydays, and then take time off. The live crowds still cheer for him every time, so you can bet they'll keep him around in some capacity for a while, whether we like it or not. He'll probably retire after a Wrestlemania, maybe next years. I don't think he'll win the belt again though, especially since he's never around full time anymore.
In your opinion who is the better champion right now, John Cena or Batista? I think it's Batista as he is very over and as you said has been booked very well by management, but, I would like to know who the better one is as both champs are very over with the fans.
Chris O.
I think Cena's better. I think Batista is benefiting from working with better people since Raw has a deeper roster, but Cena is the better of the two. He's better on the microphone, he does more to get the fans involved in what he does as a performer and I like his matches more. Both are solid. I just think Cena's better and come six months it won't even be a question because he'll really be ahead.
Hey John what's up? I have a question concerning Brock Lesnar. Now we all know that he was the best pure athlete to enter the WWE (behind Angle) & basically was given the ball early & ran with it until he pulled that crappy career move. What if Lesnar was still with the WWE & if he was, what opportunities you think he would've had down the line?
Craig (a former Lesnar fan)
I'm not a big "what if" guy as far as my writing goes, but I'll make an exception in this case. I think Lesnar was a phenomenal performer who wasn't even in his wrestling prime when he decided to leave WWE. If he was still around I think he'd still be a main eventer because he was very over in that role, constantly improving and really coming into his own as a heel just before he left. His feud with Eddie Guerrero leading up to No Way Out 2004 was very good and I see no reason why he would get worse after that. I also think a match like Lesnar vs. HHH would have happened sooner or later because of the way they were booked as the dominant guys of their brands. Could have been WrestleMania 21, who knows? I hope that one day Lesnar does come back to WWE because he had as much potential as any wrestler I could ever remember. It's just that he didn't have the heart or love for the business that you would like to see. So what if Lesnar was still with
WWE? He'd be better than what he was over a year ago when he left. I don't think he peaked and that's scary because he was great already.
Hey there. I loved your list (roster evaluation). You did an excellent job putting it together. My only comment is that Chris Jericho needs to be treated like he is the first undisputed champion. JR makes the comment that he's the first undisputed champion in almost every match but then he loses shortly afterwards. He's great on the mic especially during the highlight real. He needs to have the IC title put back on him for a while and/or receive a one on one World title shot. That's just my opinion. Talk to you later.
-Shane
I'm with ya man. People thought I was hard on Jericho with my rating, but it's not like I put him there because of his lack of talent. It's because of how he's used (or misused) by WWE that got him the rating that I gave him. The problem with Jericho being pushed now is that his contract is up near the end of the year and I don't think WWE wants to push him that hard unless he ends up re-signing with them. There's no guarantee that he will re-sign because he may want to concentrate more on his work with Fozzy or maybe land with TNA should they land a major TV deal, even thought that seems unlikely at this point.
I think now that Jericho's a heel again he'll be more comfortable in his performances. It seemed like he took a laissez faire approach for a while there, but he always seems to be his best as a heel.
That was neat to read. It's nice to see that you feel the same way about some of these people as I do. Hell, I even agree with your evaluation of Val Venis. I could never figure out why this guy hit a booking wall or glass ceiling back around '99. Oh well, it's hard to feel sorry for guys like him because he's still lucky enough to be a known wrestler and there are literally thousands of indy performers out there who would love to have his spot. You're probably right, though, a Smackdown move could work wonders for him.
I'm sure you saw Raw last night (06/05 Cena's debut). Is there any way in hell the Cena to Raw move will stick? I just don't see it lasting. They can't leave Smackdown without a champion; that would obviously make the show look extremely weak, and it's already perceived as the weaker show. I see this working itself out in a trade. There is no way I can envision HHH or Batista moving to Smackdown so I think Cena will be back there
shortly. Maybe this is just an experiment WWE is trying out for future booking purposes.
Anyway, great work,
Tony
It's hard to know if the Cena move will stick or not. I'm not a big fan of talking about the draft and making assumptions about it until the whole process is completed at the end of the month. There's just no point in saying "this show is hurt" and "this show won" already, ya know? With that said, I see Batista moving to Smackdown after he's done with HHH (I'd say Batista wins that match) because there are fresher matchups for him. I think HHH vs. Cena is the obvious "money" feud on the roster and that's why they moved Cena. I don't like it for Smackdown because I thought Cena got over largely on his own rather than because of a storyline, whereas Batista got over as the product of a great feud that involved HHH.
As for Venis, I'll never understand why he is so poorly used. I even liked him when he was Bischoff's assistant "Chief Morley" because he did a good job in that role. Now they basically have Coach in that spot. He could at worst be a good tag team wrestler.
How You Can Be Here
Email me a question with regards to anything WWE related. Ask me what I think about a wrestler, what I think about a match from the past (I can give you a star rating and thoughts on it, for example), a storyline going on or anything else. My only request is no fantasy booking. I know people like to do that. I just don't want to do that in this column. Another option is write me a commentary that's around 500 words at the most and I'll consider posting it.
Send all comments and/or questions to me at oratoryjohn@gmail.com and throw in a name for me to reference to as well. I won't post your email address, but a name would be nice. A location is fine too. That's up to you.
I really enjoy answering your questions and hearing your ideas for stuff. It's a lot of fun, so please keep them coming.
Closing Time
That's it. Thanks to all those who wrote something for the Writer Search. We'll have news on that at some point during the week of June 19-25. Smackdown Roster Evaluation is coming. Might be a News & Views next week. No promises. Check out the blog too.
Have a great week.
Smell ya later,
John C. - oratoryjohn@gmail.com
The John C. Blog
Links to check out:
The Oratory - The Best Wrestling Columns on the Net!
The John Report Archives - Missed something that I wrote? That's the place to go.
WrestleLine - Another great site I write for.
thewrestlingblog.com - Shorter takes by me and other writers from the internet.
