Welcome Rajah.com readers! This is my weekly RAW review, called RAW IS BLOGGED, that I normally post on my website on Tuesdays; however, I was late this week and have just received clearance from Rajah to post this here. I hope that you enjoy my debut edition of my “blog” here on Rajah.com!
This week’s edition of RAW was not about storylines. Saturday Night’s Main Event is in the books and the show was meant to be fairly tame to not damage build up for Sunday’s Great American Bash PPV. Is anyone looking forward to the Batista vs. Ken Kennedy main event? I’m not, and I probably won’t be ordering. Anyways, I have more complaints about this week’s edition of RAW then I should have, although it was a much better show than last week. The high points of the broadcast included solid Mick Foley promos, a real Umaga match, and the continuing revival of the tag division. The lower points actually came from the McMahon/DX segments as I feel that they are beginning to lose their draw.
The opening DX segment seemed stale to me. I guess I’m getting tired of the McMahon/DX feud. Don’t get me wrong, there are still funny parts to it, but DX is only two members and it’s more like the McMahons feuding with a tag team rather than a dominant stable. To be quite honest there’s nothing about the segment that I found particularly amusing. The joking between HHH and HBK seemed more like a way to plug their merchandise rather than make people laugh. Shane vs. HBK, I was not jumping out of my seat on the buildup for this one.
The action on RAW started out with a good fun match in Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin. These guys have been facing off a lot lately but Carlito is carrying himself well in the ring these days. WWE management told him that if he stepped it up they would be able to propel his character into a lead face on the show. It seems to be working and I have been enjoying his matches. I also enjoy how WWE has aligned Carlito with Trish Stratus. To be really cool, you must have a hot diva, and Carlito has that.
It was good to see Mickie James work against Trish again, even though it was in a tag match. I enjoy that feud and hope to see more of it down the road. Armando Alejandro Estrada cut a good promo following the match as did Mick Foley. Foley’s wasn’t as good as previous weeks but it was still solid. I’m glad WWE hasn’t forgot about Foley/Flair because that angle deserved more build up then the two weeks that it got for Vengeance. The Haas/Viscera against Lilian saga continues while I’m nothing short of bored. It’s not entertaining as is the Diva Search.
The Highlanders had a pair of nobodies this week but I enjoyed their match. WWE has lacked in a tag division for quite some time and I think the Highlanders can revive it. As I’ve mentioned before, their style is unorthodox and it can work. Hopefully next week they will be able to take the tag titles from the Spirit Squad and the Squad will break up for good. The Highlanders can continue to revive the tag division as the dominant champions. I didn’t understand DX congratulating The Highlanders telling them to go meet Mr. McMahon. Since when does McMahon not meet his talent before they win on RAW?
If you are a loyal reader of mine then you know week after week I talk about how boring Umaga’s weekly squash match is. Finally they do something with him and give him a credible opponent in John Cena. I wasn’t crazy about Umaga pinning John Cena but from a booking standpoint it made perfect sense. Edge screwed Cena, keeping their feud alive and well as Umaga stayed undefeated leaving something left for his gimmick. I wasn’t crazy about the Cena/Striker segment either, but I guess they are just keeping him in the mix of things. Striker seems to be drawing decent heat with the teacher gimmick.
The Eugene angle is really old. It ran its course a year or two ago and I don’t understand why no one else sees that. It’s time for Eugene to come out to the ring and proclaim that his entire gimmick was a rib to get him the opportunity of working on RAW. His match with Orton was pointless but The Legend Killer cut a decent promo following the match. I’m looking forward to Orton/Hogan at SummerSlam and hopefully with GAB out of the way next week, their feud with hit high gear and Hogan will start making appearances on RAW. The truth be known it would have been good to see Hogan on RAW this Monday, but I’ll cut WWE a break for the simple fact that they didn’t want to overshadow GAB build up.
Ric Flair’s response to the Mick Foley promos seemed solid. Everyone knows that despite his age, Flair is still fire on the mic. I’d love to see an Extreme Rules Match between Foley and Flair. You know that Flair is going to be bleeding for the duration of the match and with Foley you never know what is going to happen next. Can someone explain Nitro’s friendship with Foley? I noticed Foley mention Melina in his promo but I didn’t understand what he meant. I’m not being sarcastic here, I genuinely didn’t understand. Hopefully we will get a Flair vs. Foley Extreme Rules match at SummerSlam.
The Miz, the Diva Search, I’m not going to waste time discussing it. I think anyone can see this year’s Diva Search has been nothing short of a train wreck. The contestants are all pretty bad and The Miz can’t even get a line out straight. I’ve been really disappointed with the entire contest. Please don’t waste your money on voting for these girls.
Finally it was time for the so called main event. To a point it was entertaining, even though by this point, I had been drinking beer throughout the event so I wasn’t as sharp as I should have been. I apologize for that, but the aftermath of the match is what puzzled me. We all knew The Spirit Squad would interfere but when they came from under the ring, didn’t they see Triple H’s sledgehammer? That’s what makes me wonder why WWE creative can’t fill gaps such as those. DX overcomes the odds again and RAW goes off the air. Like I said in the beginning, it’s getting old, and once a feud gets old it is non existent. They need more members in DX or to move to another feud because I feel that DX could suffer the same fate as WWE’s attempt at the new World order.
All in all RAW this past Monday from San Antonio was solid. There was nothing spectacular about the event, but it was entertaining for the most part. The biggest thing to me is they have to do something to make DX exciting again, or else the stable is going to die. WWE’s mission this week was to quietly build SummerSlam without overshadowing SmackDown and I feel that it was accomplished. We didn’t get anything overly exciting like a Hogan appearance but the feuds continued leading into next week’s RAW which will begin the buildup for the biggest event of the summer, WWE SummerSlam.
That’ll do it for me this week. You can post comments on this week’s edition of RAW Is Blogged by clicking here. Feel free to send me quality feedback to richard@grayinternet.com, be sure to put RAW IS BLOGGED as your subject. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back with my full RAW Review next Tuesday! Later!
