RAW SHOULD TAKE A LESSON FROM SMACKDOWN AND ECW
By Doug Brown on 9/28/2009 10:02 AM
There are things going on in modern day television that never cease to boggle
my mind, because they go against all logical thought. For instance, why
is Cartoon Network running live action programming? Why is TV Land, the
supposed home of classic television, running new programming? Who in the
Smallville writers' room thought it was a good idea to kill off Jimmy Olsen?
How can Family Guy get an Emmy nomination for Best Comedy, when its producing
its worst episodes ever? Still, that is not the biggest mystery.
The biggest mystery is how the WWE brass can miss something that is right in
front of their face? Over the last several weeks, RAW has flip-flopped
between good and bad, usually depending on who the guest host is. On the
other hand, Smackdown and ECW have been consistently cranking out good shows
each week.
Smackdown, right now, is the best weekly wrestling series on TV. The
writing staff each week delivers the right balance between sports and
entertainment with the wrestling being the focus. Nearly everyone on the
show is involved in a program of some fashion, and that leads to very few
wasted segments. This is unlike RAW, which on many weeks seems like they
are just filling time. Much of that filler is bad comedy. Starting
from the announcing position, Jim Ross has been a positive influence on Todd
Grisham. Grisham has noticeably learned quite a bit from good ol' J.R.,
and has upped his game in order to sit at the table with one of the best, if
not the best ever. On the wrestling side, C.M. Punk has established
himself as the company's top heel. I was unsure when he turned as to
whether or not it would work, but he has embraced the role, and is thriving.
This may be premature, but I would start looking at John Cena vs. C.M. Punk
for the Wrestlemania 26 main event. In addition to Punk, you have
Batista, the Undertaker, Matt Hardy, Rey Mysterio (when he returns from
suspension), the Great Khali (when he returns from injury), Chris Jericho,
Edge (when he returns from injury), and Kane to give the brand a good top of
the card lineup. If that's not enough, they have rising stars like John
Morrison, Cryme Tyme, Dolph Ziggler, a much improved Mike Knox, Drew McInytre,
and the Hart Dynasty along with established veterans like Finlay, R-Truth, and
the greatly under-utilized Charlie Haas. Smackdown has got so much going
on that they could easily go back to single brand pay-per-views. Really,
their only weak spot is the women's division. You have two great workers
(Melina and Natalya), three that aren't bad, but not quite good yet workers
(Michelle McCool, Eve Torres, and Layla), and one that show go back to doing
interviews (Maria).
ECW is also a solid weekly show, and that amazes me considering their roster
is not exactly loaded with big name talent. Christian is the champion
and easily the star of the show. Ever since he came back from TNA, he
has worked his butt off to keep ECW respectable. This has been
especially hard considering that the brand gets so little respect from the
parent company. They don't do an "ECW Rebound" on the
bigger shows, or even make mention the ECW pay-per-view matches either
when they run down the lineups. Putting the soapbox aside, it still does
not changing the fact that ECW is doing a good job. That starts at the
top with the general manager position. I was one of the first to blast
WWE when they gave the job to Tiffany, but she has gladly proved me wrong.
I echo Dave's sentiments that she is doing very well in the role. Inside
the ring, William Regal has been awesome as their lead heel. He and
Christian have been in a feud that would be worthy of RAW or Smackdown.
I would not mind seeing Sheamus and Paul Burchill join the "Ruthless
Roundtable" to give the heels more of a clique feeling. Burchill
has been on fire lately with great matches against Christian and Yoshi
Tatsu,and that is making it hard for them to keep him on designated jobber
duty. Zack Ryder is another guy that has a great deal of talent, but
with the "Woo Woo Woo" gimmick, it is hard for a lot of fans
to take him seriously. ECW's biggest detriment is their lack of top
level babyfaces. Christian is their only main event level face.
Shelton Benjamin can help in that area if they ever decide whose side he is
on, because it seems to change on a weekly basis. Tommy Dreamer has the
ability to be one if he didn't lose so much. The fans seem to want to
get behind Goldust and the Hurricane, but they too have been losing too much.
Yoshi Tatsu has potential to be a big star. Tyler Reks has the look that
WWE likes, but they have not given us a reason to care about him. With
the recent signings of Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness from ROH,
and when Kaval (Low-Ki) returns from his injury, ECW could get even more
interesting if WWE sends those three there. Looking at the second and
third generation guys at FCW, ECW may one day have to hit up Sci-Fi for a
second hour. Although, WWE would probably fill it with extra recap
footage from RAW.
Speaking of RAW, as I mentioned earlier, the celebrity guest experiment has
been hit or miss. It seems to me, the best guest hosts have been the
ones who have been in the business before like Batista, Ted Dibiase,
Freddie Prinze Jr. (who used to write for Smackdown), Dusty Rhodes and
Trish Stratus, or athletes like Shaquille O'Neal. The other
celebrities seem to inspire the dopiest bits from the WWE Creative Team.
I think if RAW would cut back on the comedy and take a more wrestling centered
approach like Smackdown and ECW, they would produce a better show. A
great episode contrast would be the episodes featuring Trish Stratus versus
the one featuring Cedric the Entertainer. The Stratus episode was a good
example of what RAW should be each week. It was light on fluff and
heavy on action. While Cedric was not as bad a Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken,
it was still too much fluff and too little action. When two matches
featuring your champions get less than a minute each, but Cedric's sham of a
match against Chavo Guerrero gets all the time it needs, someone's priorities
are screwed up. And when is the Chavo vs. Hornswoggle thing going to
end? It's not funny anymore, and the fans have even started chanting,
"Let's Go Chavo!" While Chavo is not a top guy, he deserves
better than this. Santino Morella is another guy suffering from the bad
comedy fixation. Santino gained popularity from his schtick, but now he
is suffering from what another wrestling writer (I can't remember who wrote
this first otherwise I would give him credit) referred to as Saturday Night
Live Syndrome. This means that his bits start off okay, but then get
beaten into the ground so much that they lose their appeal, stop being
funny, and get really annoying.
Another problem facing RAW is the main event picture. After John
Cena and Randy Orton face off in Hell in the Cell, what's next? They
have not really established a viable new number one contender. For a
while, it looked as if Mark Henry was being groomed for that spot, but
this past week, Orton RKO'ed and pinned him. Both Cena and Orton
have faced DX and the Big Show several times. Instead, I would like to
see DX against Chris Jericho and the Big Show in the next tag team title
feud. The most competitive title picture on RAW right now is for
the U.S. belt, which is a sign of how things are going. Kofi Kingston is
the champion, and he has a host of challengers in MVP, Jack Swagger, the Miz,
Evan Bourne, Chris Masters, Primo and Carlito. Now if they could just
get rid of that lame belt stealing storyline. It's been done many times
before, and I have always found it it stupid. Stuff like this is rarely
seen on the other two brands.
Smackdown and ECW are producing quality programming each week in spite of
playing second and third fiddle to RAW. If RAW is not your cup of tea
right now, I suggest trying one of the other shows. Heck, even
Superstars is better than RAW on most weeks. This week, I am
passing on RAW in order to watch my beloved Dallas Cowboys against the
Carolina Panthers on Monday Night Football. RAW is no longer must-see-TV
for me, and if recent history is any indicator, I probably won't miss much.
I can probably make a good guess as to how the gauntlet match is going to end.
However, I do guarantee you that I will not miss ECW on Tuesday or Smackdown
on Friday. To paraphrase Bob Caudle from the Smoky Mountain Wrestling
shows of the 90's, they are getting close to being professional wrestling
the way it used to be, and the way I like it. If RAW is smart in the
future, they will get people to host, who are fans of the business, and not
just because they have something to plug. It's better that way for both
WWE and those of us in its Universe. After all, they are the flagship
show.
