I don't have much of an intro. It's going to be a condensed news and views this week. Just the Raw recap, some news and some questions. Nothing overly long. I'm working on a column probably for the weekend or early next week, so I'm busy with that. With that said, here's the news and views for the week starting with Raw.
Raw Recap for 08/01/05
As has been my usual, my rundown will be rather brief.
Jericho talks to start. Basically he hates Cena, blah blah blah and here comes Cena. They brawl some, then Bischoff says Jericho is ref again just like last week except now the title is on the line. I guess this was a good idea because it made us think maybe they had a clever finish in mind. Oh, how wrong we were.
Snow & Benjamin beat Masters & Snitsky. If Snitsky's in a match, you know who's taking the fall. People thinking this match was anything above poor are probably doing so because Show throwing Benjamin looked cool. This was a bad match, plain and simple. How this is the best way to use Shelton Benjamin is unbelievable to me. I don't mind Masters vs. Show particularly, I just wish they had SOMETHING for Benjamin to do.
Hey ladies, you should join the diva search because you too can one day hang around with the handicapped guy! Yeah! Eugene and Christy as a pair is pretty bizarre, but I'm sure WWE finds it hilarious just like they find Viscera hitting on women is hilarious. Angle comes out for his medal, Eugene says no. Instead we get Tatanka. Match almost goes three minutes, but Angle comes in to beat on Eugene. Then Tatanka saves Eugene. I'd be shocked if more than 10% of the crowd knew who Tatanka was. This was alright, but the best part was Eugene's impressions of Angle on the mic and in the ring. I guess Angle gets the medal back next week. Whatever. Just give me Benjamin vs. Angle soon. By the way, Tatanka, I haven't missed you.
Vince comes out for the big announcement. Before he does that, he pats himself on the back saying he's a man that does good business. Yep, just like the XFL. He announces he's rehired Matt Hardy because it's good business. So what, firing Matt Hardy before was what then? Bad business? He tells us it's Edge vs. Hardy at Summerslam. Hardy comes out to a good pop. Then he "shoots" by telling us Lita wasn't really married to Kane, which basically means what we saw last week and the entire Kane/Edge thing was pointless. This is why I said you move Kane to Smackdown during the lottery to avoid all this fake shit with the idea that Hardy would come back for a "real" feud. Anyway, he lost the crowd at points until he said he wants to kill Edge, but wouldn't mind if he died in a car accident. Promo was pretty good. Not great. I think that's probably more to WWE limiting what he could say rather than Matt himself. It'll be fun if they do a face to face promo or brawl of some kind.
My boy Kerwin White talks to Vince. McMahon tries to make a joke, but it falls flat. Segment was okay. I want Kerwin in the ring.
Conway went over Val Venis. Of course he did. Venis is the babyface jobber. He's like the new Jimmy Powers. Conway has a lot of potential. The "Con Man" gimmick does not. Very lame gimmick.
The best part of the show was next with Shawn Michaels making fun of Hogan by dressing up as the Hulkster. This was phenomenal with Michaels saying "brother" way too much, ripping on Hogan for his "politicking" which is funny because Michaels was as much of a politician as anybody. Of course Hogan was as much, or probably more. Anyway, it was just funny, great and all those other good words you can use to describe it. Maybe it'll make the crowd turn on Hogan. I don't know. Personally, I'm ready for Hogan's last match. I just know he's never going away. This is also hilarious because ten years ago they were making fun of Hogan's age as the Huckster and now all of a sudden he's expected to main event. Must be good business.
Elisabeth won some jousting thing in the diva search. Best part was Rob Schneider saying the word boner. That's not a word that you hear on TV enough, unless you're watching Growing Pains.
Cena beat Carlito. Carlito's pinfalls were all counted fast by Jericho, but Cena kept kicking out. Then he beat up Jericho, hit the FU on Carlito and for the first time pretty much ever another ref was there to count the pinfall. So tell me how a backup ref is ready when the heel GM has the heel wrestler as the referee, yet when a regular ref gets bumped in a match there's never another ref around? Hello logic. After the match, Jericho beat down Cena.
Overall, pretty good show. Nothing special. No matches were over two stars, the regular promos were just okay with Michaels pre-taped one being great. The best part of the show was we got a break from the boring Edge/Kane/Lita crap. Please let it be over.
5 out of 10.
The News
- One of the biggest pieces of news of the year came today from WWE.com: "Bret "Hitman" Hart is scheduled to arrive at WWE Headquarters at 4:00pm ET today to meet with WWE officials." All I can say is wow. There's rumors already starting about whether this is for his rumored DVD that WWE is going to produce (this is a safe bet), or the Hall of Fame next year or maybe for a role in Summerslam, specifically the Hogan/Michaels match. I think it's a good sign for everybody that Bret's meeting with WWE again. For those that I know will ask, I don't see him wrestling again. He's done, which is fine. It would just be nice to see him soak up the cheers at least one more time.
- Another story from WWE.com in the last week came regarding Brock Lesnar. WWE.com posted a blurb that said the following: "After verbally agreeing to terms with WWE, Brock Lesnar has decided to withdraw from any involvement with the company." Now people around the net are questioning the validity of it, wondering if WWE is just working the fans by saying that because they want to surprise us with a Lesnar return on TV in the near future. I sure as hell hope it's a work. I just don't know anymore. They've been putting a bunch of "real" news on there lately, so there's a chance that this is legit.
- Yet another story from WWE.com was about Dusty Rhodes possibly joining the WWE fold. He could come in as a part of the writing team since he has plenty of experience doing that. Could be about the Hall of Fame next year too.
The Three Count
1. All of this was cut off from his promo on Raw. Yes, he cut himself off. It was just good business. I give this to you as an exclusive:
"Katie Vick? Who doesn't love dead chicks? Everybody loves 'em. Like that Raymond guy. That's good business.
Mantaur? That's great fucking business. He was a half man and a half...something else. Did amazing business.
Stephanie McMahon vs. Vince McMahon? Huge business. Just don't look at the ratings or numbers. Take my word for it.
That Jillian Hall chick with the giant thing on the side of her face? Amazing business. That thing is money, baby! Money! She's beautiful until you see the left side of her face. It's not just good business, but it's comedy. Booya!
The XFL? Great business. Sure, people laughed at it, nobody watched it and we lost a few hundred million dollars. I say it's good business anyway. Trust me, damnit!
Having Hassan act like a terrorist? Now THAT is good business. It was so good that UPN couldn't handle it and told me to kill the character. If that's not good business, I don't know what is.
Putting the world title on myself? That was tremendous business. Ratings through the ref. Same with credibility!
Firing Dawn Marie while she was pregnant was great business. Nobody wants fat chicks! I know that! That's just good business, people.
Keeping the world title on Diesel for a year, that was wonderful business. Again, don't look at the numbers. I'm telling you the truth because telling you the truth is good business.
Walking like I do as if something was prodding me up my ass? That's good business. You should walk this way and maybe one day you will know about good business."
Got any examples of good business, people? Please share.
2. In listening to the Wrestling Observer Live radio show on Sunday (8-10pm Eastern), I think Dave Meltzer made a great point about the Hogan/Michaels match. He said Hogan is probably going to win it because they are already thinking about doing Hogan/Austin at WrestleMania 22, so it would be important for Hogan to go over here. I agree with that. Of course, like I've said, if Hogan never wrestled again I'd be cool with that. I saw him in his best days. I don't need to see him now. Obviously, though, Vince McMahon feels different, so I guess we better get used to the Hulkster for a while. I can't wait for this week's Raw when he imitates HBK by doing a kip up! Oh, the image of that would be hilarious.
3. I don't want to spoil Smackdown, but I will say that I've liked pretty much every damn thing about the Guerrero/Mysterio feud. So much fun because it's different in all the good ways. I know people don't think they should involve Dominic, but I disagree. It's adds more of a "real" element to it. That's the kind of real thing they should do instead of some terrorist angle, ya know?
Reader Questions & Comments
I've caught up on unanswered emails. Finally. Took me three weeks to deal with everything I got from the Hassan column's I wrote about. These are just general WWE things. As always, reader comments in yellow and mine in regular font.
I'm a big fan of Kurt Angle, and he's a great technical wrestler. But, one thing that's surprised me, is that WWE writers are not showing how great he is. He's too underrated on Raw, compared to Smackdown!, and I hate it. But, I'm thinking before he's leaving the company, he will have a feud with either Benjamin, Jericho, Triple H, or John Cena(for the title.) I can't pick, because they would all be some of the greatest feuds ever in wrestling. So, which feud would you much rather see?
Tony
I think Benjamin is the one I most want to see. I think it's got tremendous potential because both have the amateur background and Angle "trained" Benjamin at least on WWE TV. He didn't train him literally, but the first time we saw Benjamin on TV he was a part of Team Angle, so they have that teacher-student possibility there. I like Angle against anybody really, I'd just prefer Benjamin since it would be new and could be just the thing to elevate Benjamin higher up the card. Plus, that matches would be outstanding.
Hey John,
My question is: What do you see in Matt Hardy's future in 2 or 3 months when the Edge/Lita/Matt angle runs out? I know you don't do fantasy booking but in my opinion, Vince will put Matt in OVW or curtain jerking a weekend show as payback for having the guts to talk to the internet fans.
John Lay
I don't think they'll just dump on Hardy like that. I think he's been brought back in order to get a chance to see what he can really do. I think it'll be hard to put him over Edge considering there were plans to make Edge into a main eventer although obviously they've been sidetracked now. I just hope they give hardy a chance to perform with a solid push just to see how good he can be. He's a guy who really loves the business with all his heart and has shown his willingness to put his body on the line in order to put on a show for the fans. I think making him be a curtain jerker is unrealistic and that he'd be more suited to be in the Intercontinental Title picture once he is done with Edge. With that said, I see the Edge feud lasting a good three or four months. I see them getting two or three PPV matches out of it.
Hey, I was wondering if you feel sorry for Hassan, after all he did what he was told to and for that he's going to be discarded after the Bash, I personally think its a damn same and for WWE to post online protecting Hassan and not themselves is a bad move, Hassan is a great performer and got a lot of reaction. I think Vince and Stephanie see this as an opportunity to get a lot of media attention.
Jon Peters, Wolverhampton, UK
I definitely feel sorry for the guy. He's a young guy in his early to mid 20s that got his big break with the big time. Then just when he had a lot of momentum in his favor, the "genius" writers do an angle that ultimately killed his character off. It's a damn shame. I have no idea what is in his future, but I sure hope he is able to get another shot because he certainly was a performer with a bright future.
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.
Column Flashbacks
In this section from now on I'm going to link you to a column from my archives. Over the six years I've been writing online there's been plenty of things to write about, so I thought it would be a good idea to mention a column in this section during the News & Views that's available for you to peruse if you are so inclined.
In honor of Chris Jericho being in a main event storyline again, I thought it would be fitting to take you back to my column about the man from three years ago. It's called How Good is Chris Jericho? and it is waiting to be read by you, so check it out.
In Closing…
See you next time for the News & Views. I think it'll be in two weeks. Next week will hopefully be a column I'm working on. We'll see.
Smell ya later,
John C. - oratoryjohn@gmail.com
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.