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A bunch of women in bikinis throwing buckets of water on each other. I guess I'll need to read the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to find out about Professional Wrestling. Wow, A Shane McMahon promo: exhilarating, breathtaking stuff there. A draft lottery? With wrestlers appearing on all three brands already? Gee, let's move John Cena to Smackdown so he can make a special appearance on RAW the following week! The Eight-man tag was really good stuff but it would have to have been a 90 minute match to save this fiasco.
Say good bye to RVD folks! But instead of having him put over someone like Snitsky or Burke, who could have used the push; we get one final headstand bump courtesy of the most boring, overrated, talentless, property since Chris Masters. Oh wait, we got a little of Masters tonight as well. And poor Santino Marella, he is the victim of the worst thought out booking since someone made John Cena and The Great Khali a main event at two consecutive Pay-per-views. Oops, I see a pattern here. At least I got to see the long awaited Khali/Umaga promo. I am sure I am just like the rest of you that waited weeks to see that.
Face it folks, there needs to be a drastic change in the way this show is presented. The problem is that we will all have railroad spikes in our heads before that happens.
Philip Jacobs
Proud Elite Member
Baton Rouge
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I loved the sign a guy in the front row had: "Another Headlock Randy?" - It does seem that headlocks are about all that Orton ever does. Either he needs to rest quite often, or he just doesn't have a whole lot to offer.
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First up was the Diva water stuff. I will admit that I popped for several swimsuit entrances, but the in-ring action was your typical Diva fare. I will give them credit for putting Michelle McCool over. That should be one helluva photo shoot! But I thought Melina was feuding with Candice Michelle! And just days away from a PPV event! Nice going, Creative!
I too am sick of JR going “DELICIOUS FRUITY FRUITY DELICIOUS FRIUTY SKITTLES!†How babyish.
Shane's promo was same old same old. Although I am looking forward to the 3-brand draft! Hope they do it right! Or sensibly, at least.
The 8â€â€ÂÂman tag was a good, fun match. I guess Dykstra and Nitro are a new regular tag team. Give me a few more matches with these two and I’ll see if they work out. Anyway, the ladder match set for ONS looks fine and dandy, but no time to hype it! I agree, WWE should go back to one big event per month.
Cena's promo was great and to the point. Too bad his opponent can’t even come close to equaling it. Meanwhile, Santino's promo wasn't much, but Maria's quirkiness made it worthwhile. And how did Maria get so spiffy in just 30 minutes? Wow. And so why does Orton have disrespect for RVD? Because he came from ECW?
The match between RVD and Orton was going very well, until the hokey finish. But then, from what I've heard about RVD's situation in WWE, I wasn't surprised to see him on the short end of the stick here. And if this is indeed the beginning of his WWE swan song, it certainly isn't very ceremonious. And to boot, he was being beaten down by a cocky, arrogant, overrated guy who thinks of nothing but himself. Shameful.
The intergender tag match was fine, and it did a good job establishing Carlito as a heel who's only in it for himself. And since I'm not a Torrie fan, I was perfectly all right with that b!+(h getting pummeled!
Boy, that Saturday Night’s Main Event lineup doesn't look so promising, does it? An arm wrestling match? Matches involving some of WWE's worst gimmicks? The days where SNME is grand are long gone.
Umaga and Khali promo. What goofs!
Wow, I'm a lucky man. I get to see Maria three times tonight! That said, Santino taking the Masterlock Challenge wasn't squat. Get the IC belt off this guy quick!
The main event didn't do much to serve its purpose, that being to sell the main events at ONS. Of course, Shane being put over was a given. Also, why didn't Vince give a promo at the end? At least he could've done one to hype up the ECW title match, but then again, there isn't much that's wrong with that either.
Raw was a rather blah show. There was one great match and the others were either mediocre at best or tainted by the McMahons “our way or the highway†motto. I dread to hear the buyrate numbers for ONS.
RATING: FAIR
Ken Kibby,
California
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WWE Raw came from my old hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada this week. I had the opportunity to attend, and because this is Canada (and we can be brutal) which would make for some, interesting crowd reactions (see Goldberg, Shawn Michaels, etc.) This isn’t your average 12 year olds + their moms Smackdown show, no, us fans are 2nd on the list of surprising crowd reactions, 1st is Philly of course (well we can’t win everything.)
The show starts with a Memorial Day beach battle royal – I’m surprised in Canada that they even mentioned it was Memorial Day themed as we don’t celebrate that holiday. The match started out in a typical women’s gimmick match style. Water guns, buckets of water, water balloons, that kind of thing. Leyla took an ugly bump to the outside. And, as much as I hate to say it, they actually had some decent moves (In a beach battle royal? I know, eh?) I surprisingly enjoyed it as well as the other people around me. We even chanted “This is awesome†(in fact I can bee seen in camera view standing with everybody else.) I watched the tape when I got home, and would you be surprised if I told you the comments people around me were making were more perverted than King’s?
Backstage Shane made his way out. I didn’t hear anything about an announcement. When he did, we were all curious as to whether this was just another 4 person trade lottery, or a full fledged draft as it was in 2002. Can somebody answer this for me?
Apparently two people got hitched and then came to Raw. I guess its more believable. In a country where people are getting married at Tim Horton’s you never know what to expect anymore (Canadians and people in Detroit get the joke.)
About at this point I had a “Kayfabe†sign confiscated from me.
8 man tag – at first we were scared we were going to see Murdoch & Cade vs. Hardys again. But it was an eight man tag and we were all for it. The match was alright. About 5 people beside me used it as their bathroom break. By the time the Santino segment came they wished they hadn’t.
RVD vs. RKO – its intialmania bay-bee! This match was superb! They worked well together in the match, and I was really happy, till the ref stopped the match anyway. When RVD was getting worked over we didn’t chant RVD. No we’re Canadian; we’re too controversial for that. About at that point half the crowd on the floor began to chant TNA (and loudly). After that came THE RKO AND HOLY HELL! That RKO was insane! Botch or no botch we thought he was dead. That’s one for the highlight reel bar-none. I thought RVD was drooling; otherwise the tron was messing with my eyes.
Mixed Tag – It was alright. It’s not everyday you see Victoria working over Ric Flair in the course of a match. It annoyed a lot of people that when the women wrestled, they do the same thing every single time: Hair throw, slapping, head pounding into the mat, its all just stupid. Torrie got a pretty sick looking backcracker from my view. When she took it, many people went “OH†others popped, and a few people ahead of me started laughing hysterically.
Gotta love our values, eh? Not like a few people speak for the general population of Canada. I’m rambling. Let’s continue.
The chick next to me was hot, which is why I stuck around for kiss cam. Sadly Chris Masters came out and that was my cue for the bathroom.
Handicap match – right off the bat 85% of the crowd was ripping on Cena. Throughout the match the women and children chanted “Let’s go Cena†while the men ages 15-39 chanted “Cena sucks†I mean everybody ripped on that match. We tore it up, stabbed it, stepped on it, set it on fire, and buried the ashes. The match sucked. No special moments, no special ending. It was just something to put on TV.
I guess Vince decided to satisfy our Cena hate and have Lashley beat Cena up. That obviously didn’t make TV. Cena got up and got out after and got booed out of the building.
Raw was good, except for Cena, or anything ECW related for that matter. It was still worth the 4 hour drive from Windsor. SNME…well I’ll have more on that after it airs. The draft idea intrigues me. I want to know more.
Mark Davis
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
