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I liked Edge’s opening promo, with his plunder surrounding him. I also thought that TLC montage was very well done. I was so caught up in the moment that I forgot about the possibility that Cena would show up. I still don’t know if I’ll order Unforgiven, but when the main event happens, I’ll be in the proverbial “Heel Section!â€ÂÂÂ
Jeff Hardy is painting a portrait of last week’s press conference, and he spoke for a lot of us! First time I’ve seen my beloved Maria in quite some time. I wonder what she did with the paint roller?
The IC title match was just like how JR said it: great until Melina got involved. Hopefully, this leads to a rematch at Unforgiven with no DQ.
Tomorrow, I hope the ECW crowd boos DX right out of the building. OK, so it’s no Hammerstein Ballroom. But still…
I like those “This Week in Wrestling History†segments. I never got the “Monday Night War†DVD that WWE produced. Maybe I should.
Trish gets attacked by Lita backstage. Match set for Unforgiven. Carlito and Orton get involved. And after Marine stuff, Shane makes a six-person tag. Uh, OK.
Masters delivers a promo, and Maria is still watching the paint dry. Heh heh. Another Smackdown star gone to Raw, and this one’s a cruiserweight! The match with Masters and Super Crazy was Ok, but it looks as if both stars will be Heat regulars someday. Maria is still watching the paint dry, and is sniffing the paint roller.
I didn’t pay too much attention to the latest DX-McMahons jabberfest. I wish I was with Maria at that point.
Another Jackass movie? I’d rather see Snitsky get another push!
So every time Maria appears at the painted wall, that signals a dull segment. The triple threat tag match wasn’t much, and I had a hunch that Team Bangers and Mash would win. Maria touching the paint was the most amusing part of this segment!
Lots of Maria tonight! And she gets a kiss from Flair! Lucky girl! But then, AAE came out and the two exchanged words. It was a fine segment, until Umaga and Kane showed up. This will surely be one of the less exciting Unforgiven matches.
Cryme Time trains for Raw by robbing a coffee shop. Uh, Okay.
Theodore R. Long is a guest of honor at Raw tonight! Maria has gone back to the drying paint.
Gee, they’ve actually announced a lot of matches for the PPV, and there’s still one Raw left before the show!
Raw goes back to Madison Square Garden next week! And Vince McMahon vs. Triple H is the main event. Yeah, that’ll sell out the Garden!
The six-person tag served its purpose: to sell three matches on the PPV. It wasn’t exciting, but did what it was set out to do.
Well, I can clearly say that Maria was the surprise MVP of Raw this week. Several segments, in their entireties or in part, were like watching paint dry. They’ve announced seven matches for Unforgiven, but will need to do some work to get over the main matches and sell the show.
Overall Grade: C
Ken Kibby
Benicia, CA
**********
Overall, I thought tonight's episode of Raw was good. Edge cut a another solid heel promo to open the show, and it made sense for John Cena to attack him while he was perched on top of the ladder. Cena catching Edge in mid-air was pretty impressive. The segment did a good job of continuing the build to the TLC match at Unforgiven.
I thought Jeff Hardy's jab at last week's "press conference" was hilarious; WWE was really putting over how bad that segment was. The Intercontinental title match was good up until the ending. The weak disqualification ending is always frustrating, but the match was given more time than I expected. Hardy has looked good since his return, and hopefully the match at Unforgiven will have a clean finish.
I was surprised to see Super Crazy come out to challenge Chris Masters, and I was even more surprised when he went over. The match was decent, and I hope Super Crazy will be given the opportunity to have some good matches on Raw. I am not sure why he was taken off SmackDown, but maybe Vince thought he should move up to the "A-show."
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this week's episode more than the last several weeks is that the McMahons and DX didn't eat up all the time on this show. It was nearly half way through the show before Vince actually appeared on TV (other than in recaps), and I liked the angry DX better than the DX that's all about pranks and lame jokes. Of course, DX is still defying the odds and taking out 10 guys, but at least it wasn't the Spirit Squad again. I was afraid when Vince showed up again later in the show that he was going to say the one thing he hadn't ever done is main event an ECW show and insert himself in the handicapped match, so I was actually relieved when he said he was going to be main eventing Raw instead. I still wouldn't be surprised to see him show up on ECW on Sci Fi, but maybe he will refrain from doing so.
The three way tag match was okay; I'm sure Cade, Murdoch, Viscera, and Haas were just glad to have a match on television. The sunset flip/German suplex ending looked pretty cool.
Ric Flair was apparently just there to kiss Maria and refuse to call Umaga "the man." I guess they are teasing an eventual rematch between Flair and Umaga. Kane vs. Umaga won't be the greatest "wrestling" match ever, but it could be pretty good brawl.
I will wait a few weeks before I made any judgments about the Cryme Time angle. It's pretty hard to judge something just based on one week.
I enjoyed the main event way more than I expected to. Usually the six man tag matches aren't very good, but I liked this one. There was some pretty good back and forth action, and it continued building up three major feuds.
This was a solid episode of Raw that did a good job of pushing Unforgiven. The wrestling on the show was solid, and there weren't too many bad segments. I am not really looking forward to DX on ECW, but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. The Unforgiven line up looks pretty good, and I have enjoyed the build for the most part. With next week's Raw taking place in Madison Square Garden, I imagine Vince will try load up that episode, so it could be another entertaining episode.
Jamie
Kentucky
**********
Enjoyed the opening with Edge and Cena, those 2 definitely have good chemistry with each other. Jeff Hardy has performed well 3 weeks in a row, DX/McMahons are boring and I hope DX goes away ASAP. Cryme Time was awesome and I look forward to seeing more of them. The Kane, Umaga and Flair segment was entertaining and I look forward to seeing those two monsters clash. Great main event match and Trish taking the RKO was fantastic.
Gary
**********
Overall I think this was a decent show. There was the usual mixed bag of stuff of things I liked and things that weren’t that good. I thought the 6 person match was very good, Cena/Edge stuff in the beginning was good as well, the DX stuff was brief this week which was good, and Hardy/Nitro was OK. All the matches have been announced and I like when they do that early enough to give me some time to look at the card. I didn’t like how they advertised that Trish was going to address her fans but she was not given that opportunity – again (she only has 1 week left on RAW creative – give her three minutes to say goodbye!)
*** Next weeks show is live from MSG in NYC on 9/11. If the WWE is going to put on a show on that date in NY they BETTER put on a great show. They have an obligation to us New Yorkers as far as I am concerned considering their history with the Garden and the 5 year anniversary of 9/11. So far it is not looking good with HHH/Vince as the main event.
The show started off with another good promo from Edge. Of course we had the predictable Cena run in and the even more predictable Edge thru a table. Despite being overly predictable I thought it was very effective to further their feud - Overall a good segment to continue to set things up for Unforgiven.
Hardy/Nitro – This was a decent match – at times very sloppy though with some blown spots. Normally that would be OK because I thought this would be a lot of high flying stuff. However we kind of got a standard match with nothing too special and of course a DQ finish. Lets hope they save the A match for Unforgiven. Hardy shouldn’t be making fun of anyone’s promos btw.
Trish/Lita/Carlito/Orton backstage brawl was very effective in setting up their matches at Unforgiven as well as the 6 person match for RAW.
Masters/Super Crazy – Masters must still be in trouble with Vince to lose this match to Crazy. Decent match – great moonsault to finish the match.
The DX/Vince stuff was good because it was short. They did a good job of promoting the ECW match and continuing the push for Hell in a Cell.
Triple Threat Tag Team match – This match just shows how little talent is in the Tag Team division on RAW. The Highlanders win on a cool move – lets hope they beat the SS at Unforgiven so the Squad can finally be broken up.
Kane/Umaga segment was very effective in setting things up between those two. Don’t know if it will be a good match – but at least it has some heat.
Why was Maria staring at paint all night? Cryme Tyme is just stupid.
Six Person Match – Good match and everyone got to do all of their usual stuff. This match set up all three matches at Unforgiven. Good to see Trish in a main event in her next to last RAW and good to hear JR really putting her over. Although JR did give away the ending when he kept pushing how the men could wrestle the women and that Trish could get a spear or RKO. The Orton RKO does make his match with Carlito that much more personal – which is good. Also because Trish has taken a spear from Edge and now the RKO (plus been pinned twice by Lita in these mixed tag team matches) doesn’t that guarantee her a victory at Unforgiven?
John
New Hyde Pk NY
