Black Widow
05-13-2008, 06:54 PM
LOOKING AT A 'JEFF HARDY IS BACK, JOHN CENA IS HERE AND ... OH YEAH, THERE'S A PPV ON SUNDAY' EDITION OF RAW
by Buck Woodward @ 2008-05-13 12:10:08
Last night, as I was sitting through the first hour of Raw, it dawned on me that WWE really wasn't doing a lot on the program to push this Sunday's Judgment Day PPV. In fact, other than John Cena, not one announced participant (at the time) for the PPV had even appeared on camera. In fact, with the exception of the Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho segment, nothing PPV related took place until the final ten minutes of the show. WWE Champion Triple H, who is main eventing the PPV, didn't show up until the last five minutes of the show. JBL barely made a cameo at the end as well. Not having JBL or Triple H get mic time to hype their matches was bizarre to me. It was very unusual to see Raw spend most of the show on undercard feuds (only one of which resulted in a PPV match, a match that was announced on WWE.com AFTER Raw was off the air) and cram in the hype for two out of the three (at the time) Raw PPV bouts during the last five minutes of the show.
Of course, the other big story (and in a lot of ways, the bigger story) was the return of Jeff Hardy following his suspension. For the first time, WWE alluded to a wrestler being suspended and returning, although they never actually said what Jeff's "mistake" was and why it resulted in him not being around. Despite having two strikes against him (and a third would mean he gets fired), WWE not only put Hardy back on TV, but gave him a win over Umaga. A lot of people, myself included, felt WWE should take their time and make Hardy "prove himself" again before inserting him back in the mix and pushing him on TV. Still, this is a business, and in a time of sagging ratings, not making use of a popular star like Jeff Hardy wouldn't make sense. He served his suspension, and now he's back. For WWE's sake, and more importantly his own, let's hope Jeff will be able to put it all behind him this time.
Buck Woodward thoughts on the show:
I am enjoying William Regal's "Psycho King/General Manager" gimmick, and I thought him having Lilian Garcia sing "God Save The Queen" was a nice bit. Regal throwing out some "fans" was even better, although it conveniently being Mickie James' "brother and girlfriend" made the bit seem less realistic. Then we have John Cena enter to defend Mickie James, and well, the segment started dragging. A shot at WCW Thunder? Trying to provoke the crowd into a "clap-clap" style chant? A poop joke? Things were going downhill in a hurry. Then, Regal makes a match between Cena and Orton, promises not to turn out the lights, and leaves. But, before we are done, John Cena makes a stand as a patriotic American and has Lilian sing... "Respect"? I know they were in Detroit, but wouldn't her singing the national anthem or "America, The Beautiful" make more sense?
Hey, there's a steel cage up there! And for the rest of the show, we would see that steel cage in every wide shot of the building, while no one made reference to it. Would it have killed WWE to have Jim Ross make a "Why is the steel cage here tonight?" reference at some point?
The World Tag Team Title match was a short, but good bout, with Cody Rhodes looking really good following the hot tag from Holly. In the end, Piper distracts Santino, Cody hits the DDT for the pin while Carlito is looking to chase off Piper and we're moving on with the Piper-Santino feud, which has also had the residual effect of putting some attention on the tag division.
Two weeks ago, Kennedy inexplicably turned babyface by getting in the face of General Manager William Regal. Last week, he paid for it by having to team with Triple H against 14 wrestlers and losing. This week, he wrestles Snitsky. I figured this would be a pretty quick win for Kennedy to boost him as a top babyface. Instead, Snitsky gets a ton of offense, and Kennedy tries chopping out his legs before Snitsky mounts a comeback prior to Kennedy hitting the Mic Check for the pin. I'm glad Kennedy won, but why would they have Snitsky, who is going nowhere, get this much offense on someone who in theory is building momentum for a big run? Also, where was Regal to mess with Kennedy this week?
Being a child of the 80's, I liked the Santino interview and all the references he made. That said, I don't know if I want to see a Santino vs. Piper singles match.
Mickie James asks John Cena out, and Cena plays aloof before agreeing to go out. Uhhh... I thought WWE wanted fans to cheer Cena? Seeing the popular Mickie kiss up to Cena, and Cena playing hard to get, is probably just going to make people hate him more.
The Divas tag match was quick, and was all about setting up Melina and Phoenix breaking up. I did like Maria and Mickie's double split spot though. At this point, I wondered if Melina was turning babyface, to be honest.
72% of fans who voted in WWE's poll think Shawn is telling the truth, even though the announcers keep saying he hurt his right leg, and you can see he is selling the left. This led to the segment where Shawn Michaels admitted he was lying about the leg being hurt, but Jericho didn't believe him, so Shawn superkicks him. So, Shawn has been lying about his leg for three weeks, he has a match against Chris Jericho on Sunday (and now Jericho has a reason to want revenge)... oh, and didn't Batista say he would destroy Michaels if he found out Shawn was lying? Look's like we know who'll be doing a run in on Sunday. Strange that WWE didn't put over the Batista part of things.
Jeff Hardy, complete with new music, makes his return, and gets the pop of the night. Obviously, the fans don't care about his suspension, they're just happy to have him back. I thought it was different to have Jeff cop to his "mistake" in the ring, although it was never made clear what the mistake was. Then William Regal turns off his mic, and says Jeff will "pay for his sins"... by wrestling a guy he wrestles all the time anyway! Umaga dominated, but then Jeff pulls out Whisper In The Wind for a flash pin. It certainly looks like Umaga is being set up to leave Raw now.
I've been a big proponent of WWE putting more emphasis on tag teams. That said, the booking of Cade & Murdoch vs. Cryme Tyme was just bizarre. Cade & Murdoch are back together again after Cade walked off two weeks ago. Jerry Lawler says they've been winning matches since Murdoch started singing. Where, on house shows? Anyway, they're back together, but you figure they are bound to lose, since they are facing Cryme Tyme, who other than Jeff Hardy and Triple H, got the loudest pop of the night. Nope, Murdoch gets a clean win by reversing a sunset flip. Huh? So much for Cryme Tyme's momentum, as they just lost clean to a team that is falling apart.
Then, Cade asks the fans if they want to hear Trevor sing. Um, you just beat the team the crowd loves, and you expect them to cheer Trevor doing a Kenny Rogers number? Cade then turns on him. That's right, he turns on him after the match they just won. So, Cryme Tyme won't even get their win back. This was just a mess from a booking standpoint, but at least Cade hit a great punch and maybe he'll finally get a chance to fulfill his potential as a singles heel.
Melina hanging out with Jillian Hall means she is still a heel, so it looks like the focus is to make Phoenix a monster that doesn't want any friends. Her beating up of Melina was absolutely brutal, and really well done.
Heaven help us, Randy Orton cut another good promo. I really think he works a lot better when he does backstage bits, instead of in-ring promos. His "quite intensity" just works better in that setting, even if he doesn't ever seem to know which way to look into the camera.
Time to run down the PPV and we've got... four matches? They didn't even bother mentioning the fifth match on the show (Punk & Kane vs. Miz & Morrison) and for some reason decided to announce the Divas match AFTER Raw was off the air.
The main event between Randy Orton and John Cena opened up with some back and forth exchanges, and the crowd split between the two. After the break, the crowd really got into the match, which made it a lot of fun. The teasing of the RKO, then Cena with the top rope Rocker Dropper had the fans popping huge. Of course, that couldn't last, as William Regal finally revealed how he was going to screw John Cena by sending out JBL to be the referee. Cena wasted no time in fighting with JBL, and we of course got the World's Fastest Pin as Orton and JBL took advantage of Cena. By this point, we're all waiting for Triple H's music.... and there it is. Big brawl, JBL and Cena fight into the crowd and we have Triple H fighting Orton as the steel cage is inexplicably lowered for our last ditch effort to hype the PPV. Orton escapes, Triple H poses on top of the steel and we're off the air with only a two minute overrun.
PWInsider.com
by Buck Woodward @ 2008-05-13 12:10:08
Last night, as I was sitting through the first hour of Raw, it dawned on me that WWE really wasn't doing a lot on the program to push this Sunday's Judgment Day PPV. In fact, other than John Cena, not one announced participant (at the time) for the PPV had even appeared on camera. In fact, with the exception of the Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho segment, nothing PPV related took place until the final ten minutes of the show. WWE Champion Triple H, who is main eventing the PPV, didn't show up until the last five minutes of the show. JBL barely made a cameo at the end as well. Not having JBL or Triple H get mic time to hype their matches was bizarre to me. It was very unusual to see Raw spend most of the show on undercard feuds (only one of which resulted in a PPV match, a match that was announced on WWE.com AFTER Raw was off the air) and cram in the hype for two out of the three (at the time) Raw PPV bouts during the last five minutes of the show.
Of course, the other big story (and in a lot of ways, the bigger story) was the return of Jeff Hardy following his suspension. For the first time, WWE alluded to a wrestler being suspended and returning, although they never actually said what Jeff's "mistake" was and why it resulted in him not being around. Despite having two strikes against him (and a third would mean he gets fired), WWE not only put Hardy back on TV, but gave him a win over Umaga. A lot of people, myself included, felt WWE should take their time and make Hardy "prove himself" again before inserting him back in the mix and pushing him on TV. Still, this is a business, and in a time of sagging ratings, not making use of a popular star like Jeff Hardy wouldn't make sense. He served his suspension, and now he's back. For WWE's sake, and more importantly his own, let's hope Jeff will be able to put it all behind him this time.
Buck Woodward thoughts on the show:
I am enjoying William Regal's "Psycho King/General Manager" gimmick, and I thought him having Lilian Garcia sing "God Save The Queen" was a nice bit. Regal throwing out some "fans" was even better, although it conveniently being Mickie James' "brother and girlfriend" made the bit seem less realistic. Then we have John Cena enter to defend Mickie James, and well, the segment started dragging. A shot at WCW Thunder? Trying to provoke the crowd into a "clap-clap" style chant? A poop joke? Things were going downhill in a hurry. Then, Regal makes a match between Cena and Orton, promises not to turn out the lights, and leaves. But, before we are done, John Cena makes a stand as a patriotic American and has Lilian sing... "Respect"? I know they were in Detroit, but wouldn't her singing the national anthem or "America, The Beautiful" make more sense?
Hey, there's a steel cage up there! And for the rest of the show, we would see that steel cage in every wide shot of the building, while no one made reference to it. Would it have killed WWE to have Jim Ross make a "Why is the steel cage here tonight?" reference at some point?
The World Tag Team Title match was a short, but good bout, with Cody Rhodes looking really good following the hot tag from Holly. In the end, Piper distracts Santino, Cody hits the DDT for the pin while Carlito is looking to chase off Piper and we're moving on with the Piper-Santino feud, which has also had the residual effect of putting some attention on the tag division.
Two weeks ago, Kennedy inexplicably turned babyface by getting in the face of General Manager William Regal. Last week, he paid for it by having to team with Triple H against 14 wrestlers and losing. This week, he wrestles Snitsky. I figured this would be a pretty quick win for Kennedy to boost him as a top babyface. Instead, Snitsky gets a ton of offense, and Kennedy tries chopping out his legs before Snitsky mounts a comeback prior to Kennedy hitting the Mic Check for the pin. I'm glad Kennedy won, but why would they have Snitsky, who is going nowhere, get this much offense on someone who in theory is building momentum for a big run? Also, where was Regal to mess with Kennedy this week?
Being a child of the 80's, I liked the Santino interview and all the references he made. That said, I don't know if I want to see a Santino vs. Piper singles match.
Mickie James asks John Cena out, and Cena plays aloof before agreeing to go out. Uhhh... I thought WWE wanted fans to cheer Cena? Seeing the popular Mickie kiss up to Cena, and Cena playing hard to get, is probably just going to make people hate him more.
The Divas tag match was quick, and was all about setting up Melina and Phoenix breaking up. I did like Maria and Mickie's double split spot though. At this point, I wondered if Melina was turning babyface, to be honest.
72% of fans who voted in WWE's poll think Shawn is telling the truth, even though the announcers keep saying he hurt his right leg, and you can see he is selling the left. This led to the segment where Shawn Michaels admitted he was lying about the leg being hurt, but Jericho didn't believe him, so Shawn superkicks him. So, Shawn has been lying about his leg for three weeks, he has a match against Chris Jericho on Sunday (and now Jericho has a reason to want revenge)... oh, and didn't Batista say he would destroy Michaels if he found out Shawn was lying? Look's like we know who'll be doing a run in on Sunday. Strange that WWE didn't put over the Batista part of things.
Jeff Hardy, complete with new music, makes his return, and gets the pop of the night. Obviously, the fans don't care about his suspension, they're just happy to have him back. I thought it was different to have Jeff cop to his "mistake" in the ring, although it was never made clear what the mistake was. Then William Regal turns off his mic, and says Jeff will "pay for his sins"... by wrestling a guy he wrestles all the time anyway! Umaga dominated, but then Jeff pulls out Whisper In The Wind for a flash pin. It certainly looks like Umaga is being set up to leave Raw now.
I've been a big proponent of WWE putting more emphasis on tag teams. That said, the booking of Cade & Murdoch vs. Cryme Tyme was just bizarre. Cade & Murdoch are back together again after Cade walked off two weeks ago. Jerry Lawler says they've been winning matches since Murdoch started singing. Where, on house shows? Anyway, they're back together, but you figure they are bound to lose, since they are facing Cryme Tyme, who other than Jeff Hardy and Triple H, got the loudest pop of the night. Nope, Murdoch gets a clean win by reversing a sunset flip. Huh? So much for Cryme Tyme's momentum, as they just lost clean to a team that is falling apart.
Then, Cade asks the fans if they want to hear Trevor sing. Um, you just beat the team the crowd loves, and you expect them to cheer Trevor doing a Kenny Rogers number? Cade then turns on him. That's right, he turns on him after the match they just won. So, Cryme Tyme won't even get their win back. This was just a mess from a booking standpoint, but at least Cade hit a great punch and maybe he'll finally get a chance to fulfill his potential as a singles heel.
Melina hanging out with Jillian Hall means she is still a heel, so it looks like the focus is to make Phoenix a monster that doesn't want any friends. Her beating up of Melina was absolutely brutal, and really well done.
Heaven help us, Randy Orton cut another good promo. I really think he works a lot better when he does backstage bits, instead of in-ring promos. His "quite intensity" just works better in that setting, even if he doesn't ever seem to know which way to look into the camera.
Time to run down the PPV and we've got... four matches? They didn't even bother mentioning the fifth match on the show (Punk & Kane vs. Miz & Morrison) and for some reason decided to announce the Divas match AFTER Raw was off the air.
The main event between Randy Orton and John Cena opened up with some back and forth exchanges, and the crowd split between the two. After the break, the crowd really got into the match, which made it a lot of fun. The teasing of the RKO, then Cena with the top rope Rocker Dropper had the fans popping huge. Of course, that couldn't last, as William Regal finally revealed how he was going to screw John Cena by sending out JBL to be the referee. Cena wasted no time in fighting with JBL, and we of course got the World's Fastest Pin as Orton and JBL took advantage of Cena. By this point, we're all waiting for Triple H's music.... and there it is. Big brawl, JBL and Cena fight into the crowd and we have Triple H fighting Orton as the steel cage is inexplicably lowered for our last ditch effort to hype the PPV. Orton escapes, Triple H poses on top of the steel and we're off the air with only a two minute overrun.
PWInsider.com