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Carlito looks weird with the haircut. Vince decides to add Umaga to Carlito's match w/HHH since Umaga lost the IC belt, and therefore is all pissy.
To see Linda McMahon slap Melina - Linda slaps the same way she takes a Stone Cold Stunner. Really really poorly. The only thing I've ever seen her do that didn't look faked was when she kicked Vince in the cajones at Wrestlemania a few years back.
Seeing Sandman cane Santino Marella all the up the ramp was fun to watch, but he took all those shots right to the head. That's gotta hurt. BTW - Santino was another one on SI's list.
Maria has a deer in the headlights look (more than usual) when she "wrestles" Beth Phoenix. Again. And loses Again. I don't know why they refer to Phoenix as a Glamazon. A glamorous Amazon. An Amazon is usually tall, but Phoenix is actually a little shorter than Candice Michelle. Incidentally - Candice bounces very nicely when she runs.
Randy Orton interview w/William Regal. It had the obligatory recap of all the people he's given "concussions" to. I was going to watch it but decided to poke out my eyes with an icepick instead. I'm so frickin' sick of this storyline. It's gotten to the point that it doesn't matter where on the head or how hard Orton kicks, it's just an insta-concussion. I was hoping we'd get rid of Orton for awhile, but it turns out the little son of a bitch already copped to what he did awhile ago. John Cena comes out and attacks Regal and puts him in the STFU. Oh yeah - Regal was on the list too.
WGTT vs Kendrick & London for the #1 contender for the tag title. Cade & Murdoch were at ringside playing babyfaces again. After K & L won the match (Haas got pinned) Cade & Murdoch did the shaking hands bit. Haas was also on the list.
Jillian & Daivari "sing" before their match. I know Jillian's gimmick is supposed to parody Brooke Hogan, but people have lost interest, and it's time to stop it. HOWEVER - if Vince wants to bring in a jobber as a Nick Hogan look-a-like, I would have no problem watching that. It would be therapy for all those people who think Nick needs to get the ever loving shit beat out of him. Oh yeah - they faced Mickie James (she's so cute) and Cody Rhodes. Cody got the pin.
HHH vs Carlito & Umaga. This lasted about a minute as a regular match until Umaga got DQ'd. They double teamed HHH for a while until Carlito brought 2 chairs (??) into the ring. They were going to use 1 on Hunter in the corner, but he moved and Umaga destroyed the chair. HHH took the other chair (boy - lucky Carlito thought to bring 2 chairs in, huh??) and took out Carlito. A few chair shots and sledgehammer blows later, and Umaga was down. Boy - he had a really bad night. Had to wrestle 2 matches. Lost his belt, and got clobbered by HHH. Now the next time you are offered illegal medications, what are you going to say?? If you saw Carlito talking to Umaga in the locker room earlier - I think it's funny that apparently Umaga can understand English, but can't speak it.
The McMahon family cometh. This family is like - what if the Father Knows Best family smoked crack?? Well, they'd probably run their own wrestling organization. This is the other storyline that I'm so damn sick of. Remember a couple of months ago when Vince was "dead"?? Wasn't that nice?? Anyone feel like going out and tampering with his limo?? I can say with 101% honesty that I don't give a flying shit who the illegitimate son is. We know it's not Kennedy. Well, it was supposed to be, but guess whose name was in the SI article?? Yup. Way to blow a push dumbass.
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I think Monday night's WWE Raw was very soap opera like. It's sad to say, but WWE is becoming more and more like a soap opera these days. The highlight of the night was definitely the Tag Team Title number one contenders match, followed by the Hardy/Umaga Intercontinental Title match. The handicap match between Triple H, Carlito, and Umaga was decent, but really lacked excitement. Triple H clearly missed with the sledgehammer in the end, and it was a bit of a disappointment to see him being put up against non main eventers. Out of 10 on the enjoyment scale, I give Monday's Raw a 6 at best.
**********
I thought tonight's Raw was a rather enjoyable show, everything considered. The matches were rather fun, they moved the stories forward as much as they could, and everything really just worked, which is somewhat remarkable considering everything that has happened and is happening.
Random thoughts:
*Beth Phoenix is a revelation, really. I don't know if its just that she was misused before, or didn't get the chance to move up... There's a time for T&A and there's a time for wrestling.... When I watch wrestling, I want to see wrestling. It's refreshing to see a woman wrestler who can believably kick the snot out of her opponent, cut a promo, and still be pretty good looking (nothing against Victoria who meets 2 out of those 3 criteria). Too often WWE is inconsistent with whether women are meant to wrestle or be eye candy, but hopefully they don't blow this.
*Santino is really working for me as an entertaining heel. He's genuinely funny in that role. Same for Jillian Hall.
*It's bad when Randy Orton intentionally causes head trauma in his opponents, but its OK when Triple H does it? In any event, I would like to see WWE push a Triple H / Umaga feud... Umaga is still a great heel, and he and Triple H showed significant potential and could work an awesome program together, I think.
If looked at in a vacuum, one would have to wonder what the hell was going on with all the brush-offs and left-turns and free-TV title changes. One really has to look at this episode in light of everything that has been going on while at the same time putting all of that out of your mind to enjoy the show. That's a difficult balance to look for, and if the execution was off, it would be rather easy to make a sucky show, but WWE pulled off an OK show on little notice and with their hands tied, which is way more than I was personally expecting. Lets hope ECW and Smackdown... well, at least Smackdown, can pull it off too.
Jeffrey O. Gustafson
Newish Elite Member, Enjoying it, too.
