Looking At A "why Cant They Let Flair Do Promos Like That Every Week" Edition of RAW

Last night's Raw was all about one thing, hyping WrestleMania. I have been pretty outspoken about the bland build that has gone into this year's show, and with good reason. Last night, however, they did a solid job of promoting the event. I don't know if it was enough to get people straddling the fence to part with their hard earned 55 dollars (65 if you want HD) at a time when they could use that money to fill the gas tank of their car but at least they reassured those that will be getting the PPV that they will probably get a good overall broadcast for their money. At this point, that is probably the best they could have hoped for.

The Angles:

The opening angle of the show was kind of odd because it was all over the place. First you have John Cena putting over the WWE Title match. OK, I get it. Then, Big Show came out to put over his match. Yeah, I am not looking forward to it, but WWE sees it as a big match so I get that too. Then, out comes JBL to talk about an afterthought bout that is being presented as something as important as the first two matches. That made zero sense but at least we got the great moment of John Cena totally no selling him. That was one of the best Cena lines ever. Then out came Randy Orton. And Umaga, who actually did a promo. Kind of. And then, of course, out came The Game. Anyone who didn't see that coming, well, they just weren't looking. The point of it was to hype all of their matches and I got that, but JBL was the fish out of water there. It just goes to show that if you are tight with Vince McMahon and involved in his angle, you get the push.

I loved the promo package that they did on Ric Flair. The classic footage was great and brought back so many memories. It also showed Flair in the light he should have been put in leading up to Mania. Yes, he is older now but dammit, back then he was the best thing going. By the end, it made me wonder why they didn't do more of that leading up to Sunday.

Ric Flair's promo, WOW. It was frickin' amazing. Awesome. Off-the-charts. It did more to sell his match than everything that they did before it. Shawn Michaels calling him Old Yeller, as well as Flair's reaction, was great as well. This was just fantastic television. When people ask me why I like wrestling, promos like that one explain it far better than I ever could.

We all had the feeling that Candice would not be able to wrestle at WrestleMania. That meant she needed to be replaced in the Bunny bout. As great as the Ric Flair angle was, this segment was 180 degrees away in it's wretchedness. That match will be a train wreck. It had better be quick.

The Matches:

I enjoyed the tag match of the MITB guys. The work was good and they told a good story of Sunday being an "every man for himself" situation. That should be one of the show stealers on Sunday.

What was the point of Khali vs. Holly? I guess it was to make it very clear to us how little the tag belts mean. Sure, they tried to push that it will be hard to get Khali out of the battle royal at Mania but to me, it just said that Bob Holly holds a worthless title. It was a bad, bad segment.

The mixed six person match was largely very painful. If the idea of that segment was to add heat on Sunday's tag bout, well it didn't work. Adding Ashley to the Bunny match promises to make a potentially bad situation worse.

The best part of the main event was that Ric Flair got the duke at the end. Other than that, the whole bout was about setting up Mania matches (well, except with Big Show). Honestly, that is exactly what it should have been. Yes, there wasn't a lot of wrestling on the show but you know what? There shouldn't have been. This is the week before WrestleMania. It makes no sense to give out freebies when you are trying to collect 55 bucks a head (65 in HD) on Sunday.

What To Make Sure And Watch If You DVR'd The Show:

Watch everything that involved Ric Flair, as well as the MITB tag match. Then, watch Flair's promo a second time.

Rhetorical And Unanswered Questions:

Did John Cena come out and remind people that this Sunday was WrestleMania because the build was such that WWE felt that he needed to do so?

Why are fans booing The Big Show when, if Floyd Mayweather was there, they would have been booing him too?

Does that tell you that they just don't like either one of them or their match?

How great was John Cena crapping on JBL in the opening promo?

When Umaga came out, did anyone expect him to do a promo?

And, why didn't he attack JBL?

Was the week before WrestleMania the best time to be plugging a new HHH t-shirt?

Why is it that no one slapped HHH when he was talking?

How do Edge and Undertaker feel about HHH calling himself, Cena and Orton the three biggest stars in the business?

Did Willie Regal really tell JBL that he was one of the people who had a chance at being in the standout match on Mania?

I mean, how much Vince ass do you have to kiss to get that kind of bogus statement made?

Did it make anyone else sick that they showed all those clips from last week of Vince McMahon getting the better of Ric Flair?

Is there anything more of an oxymoron than a WWE "press conference", especially when they invite fans to it?

How embarrassing was it for WWE to have Jeff Hardy all over the new WWE CD commercial?

Damn, how impressive was it to see Big Show doing dips while training?

Did you forget that Bob Holly was one half of the tag champs before he came out with the strap?

Was Flair referring to WWE creative when he talked about how great it was to have the fans respect him?

How right was Shawn when he told Flair that by giving him back up, he was just doing what Flair would have wanted done in the past?

WOW, did I really see THE TITLE BELT on Raw?

Didn't Cena have a point when he told HHH that he never lost the title and that hurts worse than a match that H did lose?

Where was Floyd Mayweather when all the other Mania opponents came out during the main event?

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