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For the first time in many years I was jumping out of my seat and excited at an honest to goodness thrilling conclusion to Raw this evening. Jericho's return is in my opinion the best medicine a sick and dying WWE product needs right now. Chris Jericho is the perfect blend of in-ring experience and mic skills that no one on a WWE show today can hold a candle to. His comeback rantings today are a shining example. Take note, up-and-comers in the locker room: THIS-IS-THE-WAY-TO-WORK-THE-CROWD! Jericho has personality and charisma. Something lacking from a majority of the talent today. WWE Creative is not doing a good job at all of passing the torch to its newer talent. Ironic Orton's storyline tonight was "passing the torch" His promos are robotic and his in-ring ability is slow to improve and doesn't wow the crowd the way any given attitude era star would have. And that's the problem with the newer talent. The veterans just can't carry a show based on their name. Triple H is as good and better than he's ever been. But you can't build an empire on just Triple H. You won't be able to repair a show solely on the return of Jericho, but his return is most definitely a leap in the right direction. I have been awaiting this for some time because as i said before Jericho is the perfect blend of wrestling, charisma, and comedy. An awesome wrestler from when the show was truly great. And for the first time in years I absolutely can not wait to see a quality Raw next Monday with someone at the helm who truly knows how to give the fans every last cent worth of what they paid to see. The new talent most definitely has the potential to step up and be great if only they were allowed the creative breathing room to step up, establish a character (a good one) and really run with it unobstructed by the one-sided views of a creative department who no one has the grapefruits to stand up to and argue "My character sucks!"
Well, all hail the return of Y2J. And here's to watching a great show next Monday night!
Robbie,
Clarksville TN
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Yeah... Jericho's return was kind of weak. I think it's kind of funny how in all the interviews he's been doing lately, Jericho would talk about how you always have to reinvent yourself and continuously change yourself in the wrestling business. How he likes to keep people surprised like a magician does during his act. And though he was certainly dressed like a Vegas magician, his whole return was nearly a spot-on rehash of his original debut. Except this time they had him standing up there not speaking for way too long and not many people really seemed that interested after all this waiting. The way he was speaking was also a little too cartoonish and over-excited, even by Jericho standards.
And why did the King mention now how they've been watching the promo videos all this time when they never mentioned them before? It might've been funnier if the announcers had acted like the whole Jericho return came completely out of left field.
All that aside, I have always liked Chris Jericho's in-ring abilities and he's done a number of entertaining promos, but I don't think this was a strong return at all. I hope it gets better from there.
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Yeah, yeah Y2J returned yay for him, seriously yes I'm happy he came back and he should be able to put on some very solid matches with a lot of the people on the roster, but some people just need to calm down about it. It's not like the writing is going to instantly improve with him nor did wrestling die without him and it could've been done a lot better then it was. Getting away from Jericho for the moment the rest of the show was solid overall Horny buried Carlito which I've got no problems with Carlito did nothing for me in his entire time in WWE, Mickie's new finisher is a hit with Johnny Ace and 15 year old males, HBK-Kennedy started something although they shouldn't have ended the Hardy-Kennedy angle like that and speaking of Hardy the other big star of the nights RAW was Jeff Hardy yet again he came out looking like a legit main eventer he kicked out of or reversed all of Umaga's moves, looked like he was going to get the win before Snitsky ran down fought him off until the numbers game caught up with him and was once again left standing tall with HHH in the ring with Jeff's music playing, then backstage skit with HHH that included Hunter saying he respected Jeff when was the last time Hunter said he respected someone storyline or otherwise. On the back of the stuff Jeff got done at the PPV we might finally see someone with the last name Hardy in the main event.
Overall a solid RAW that followed up well from a strong PPV for WWE
Final RAW Rating: 7/10
Brett
Sydney, Australia
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Favorite moment - Jericho's huge return. Least Favorite - None.
This was a RAW I had been looking forward to for a long time - everything seemed overshadowed in the end, but I must say I have not fealt that kind of anticipation for a long time. Ken Kennedy and Shawn Michaels started the show hot, and the angle with Orton having the 'torch passed on' to him was a great touch. Santino Marella is fantastic. Jeff Hardy is ready for the main event now. The whole show seemed to fit well and with the exception of the scary 450 splash by Jillian Hall and the odd billing of Carlito/Hornswoggle so late in the show, it was one I glad I recorded. Everyone knew it was building towards the return of Y2J and these moments in wrestling are so rare, so special, it didn't disappoint. I was 18 years old in 1999 and remember watching his jaw-dropping debut live on late night Sky TV the UK, and last night, at the age of 26, I stayed up til after 4 a.m hoping to get that magic again. It delivered big time. Thank you WWE. Moments like that are what we crave.
Dave Mc
Blackpool, UK
