Unasnwered Questions From This Week's RAW

[Ill Will]

***SPOILER ALERT*** if you haven't seen this week's RAW yet.

Just a few things that left me puzzled after watching RAW tonight:

-- How has it been determined (kayfabe-wise) that JBL is the #1 contender? I mean, Regal just basically announces that he'll be the challenger at Backlash with no real warrant or reason for putting JBL in the match.

-- Not that it matters, but what objection would Orton have to shaking JBL's hand? Is "because he's a bad guy" really a good enough explanation?

-- JBL obviously doesn't even make the slightest attempt to get himself into shape. Does he really deserve such a pass just because of his status backstage? Seriously, even Triple H, the heir apparent, keeps himself in shape.

-- Is it just me, or does tonight's arena look kind of compact? Seems like the crowd is much closer to the ring, and is altogether more dense. I guess it was just a small arena.

-- Is Umaga turning face? Half the crowd goes crazy for him, while the other half doesn't seem to know what the hell to do.

-- How much longer does Val Venis really have? He's starting to not even be effective as a jobber, and that's kind of sad.

-- Was I the only one freaked-the-fuck-out by Mickie James' screech?

-- This RAW consisted of 2 diva matches, 3 meaningless tag team matches (one of which is also one of the previously mentioned diva matches), 2 handicap matches, both including 2 of the same people, and a squash match. Can anyone say filler?

-- Why does Cody Rhodes suck so much?

-- Where is the logic (again, kayfabe) behind putting Cena in the championship match at Backlash? He lost at 'Mania, clean. He has no entitlement to a rematch. He has no real ongoing feud with any of the other 3 guys, and the way he was put in the match really doesn't make sense. He basically just walks up and says "I wanna be in the match too", and Regal gives him a shot. By this logic, literally anyone should have been able to get into the match. Super Crazy could have walked up, said he wanted in the match, beaten a couple other of the participants, and tada! We have a quintuple-threat match. The whole booking premise here really makes no sense.

-- Speaking of Cena, how much does Albany hate him? I really don't get why he hasn't had a heel turn yet. He's been primarily booed for a while now. I'm sure IWC marks will still claim that It's because he still sells a lot of merch or whatever. I just think it's getting kind of stupid watching a guy try to be a babyface when he's getting booed out of every arena.

-- "Why did Lilian suddenly develop an Italian accent?" Lawler actually asked this live, but I was wondering it too. Seemed kind of random.

-- I wonder what type of iPod HHH has.

-- Why hype Maria and her Playboy issue in Cryme Tyme's segment backstage, but then immediately have her lose cleanly to Beth Phoenix? Seems counterproductive.

-- I like the Highlight Reel usually, but tonight, it seemed kind of useless, and I mean in the sense of the in-ring setup and the name, not in what actually happened during it. HBK and Batista could have just as easily come to the ring without the whole highlight reel setup and had the exact same conversation. It really had nothing to do with Jericho. He and his show seemed kind of arbitrary.

-- Was the finish to the main event not one of the sloppiest clusterfucks that you've ever seen? I'm still not sure what actually happened, I just know that it resulted in Cena being included in the fatal 4 way.

-- Who am I supposed to cheer for? Seriously, half of RAW's roster is tweeners. What is Umaga? What is Jericho? What is Cena? There are plenty of other examples that I don't care to recall right now, but you get the idea. Creative is doing a pretty shifty job in writing the last few episodes of RAW. They are simply trying too hard. Leaving fans with a level of suspense and uncertainty is a good thing. Flat out confusing them is bad.

Overall, this RAW wasn't that bad. It looks pretty bad on paper, and looking back at it, I obviously have a few discrepancies, but overall it kept me entertained. I'd just like to see some more consistency and logic applied to the booking and writing, because a lot of it makes little to no sense.

[Dangerous Incorporated]

Nice read and well said. I couldnt agree more.

[JohnCenaFan28]

I liked the fact that the tag-team division and divas were used, particularly Mickie being on RAW. She's the most talented diva and she's been on RAW like once for the entire year(I think). Anyway, it was a decent RAW but it could have been better and I just hated the set-up for Backlash's RAW ME...

[Booyaka138]

persoonally i thot it was pretty flat...and i was watching it on TV.
hahah i USUALLY wont MISS a Raw, its almost sacreligious to me to miss a Raw, but yeah i was kinda disappointed with this 1. and ill DFEND ANY RAW hahah