Let me set the scene… I was watching RAW with a friend last night (who hasn’t been able to watch wrestling for the last few months so is a little out of the storyline aspects of the show.) I was busy explaining that John Cena was now in Nexus and I was annoyed how he never wore their shirt.
As I was explaining this Barrett made his entrance towards the end of the show with the shirt over his shoulder and I was beginning to get excited, thinking this should have happened 6 weeks ago. Sure enough, Wade told Cena that he wanted him to wear the Nexus colours.
Cena then started to taker his shirt off until the screen went blue and it stated “End of Programme” My jaw dropped as I realised the show had run over it’s allotted time slot and missed the ending of the show. I even have a bumper of it recording extra minutes but this wasn’t enough so it must have been a fair run over.
I noticed on the Wrestlezone forums that people who are in the UK and used Sky+ to record RAW weren’t best pleased as they missed the ending of the show and obviously I wasn’t any different. I have obviously since caught up with the ending through the wonderful invention of YouTube.
That being said I was quite impressed by the 3 hour special (If we can even call a 3 hour show special these days.) It was entertaining, it didn’t contain too many bad spots and it was nice to see some old TV style presentation again.
I loved the small window appearing before each match with a brief promo by the wrestler making his entrance, in particular Dolph Ziggler with Vickie Guerrero. It really took me back to some good old days of wrestling and my youth.
I also hate how Michael Cole is doing his job so well… He wants me to hate him and I cannot even attempt to resist. In the words of Ron Simmons……… DAMN!
Hearing good old JR on commentary again makes me realise how much he can enhance a match and how much I miss him on weekly television. I understand that he has been given a new role within the company and perhaps health doesn’t support him being on the road but you can tell deep down in his heart that he is a true wrestling fan and he will always be remembered as the true voice of the WWE.
He also had a damn fine match in Jack Swagger against Daniel Bryan to call. I know Cole did his spots which enhanced his heel aspect but it annoyed me that it slightly took away from one quality match.
Giving the Iron Sheik a microphone was also a big mistake. Whoever thought it would be a bright idea was crazy and deluded. It proved to be a big mistake but Santino did well and controlled the situation, even though the back had to cut the power to Sheik’s microphone.
I was also reading JR’s comments from the show and found it quite heart warming that there were a room full of old legends sitting in a room at the backstage of RAW with most of them snoring before there moment of coming out on to the stage. I’m sure it wasn’t an anti-PG protest but it was nice to hear.
Piper also had a good segment by challenging Cena’s decision regarding the main event of Survivor Series and did a very good job of creating interest.
Piper is a prime example of how you can cut promo’s that are quality but don’t break any PG ruling. His tone on RAW was distinct and believable and his passion was clear. This is something some of the newer guys will hopefully pick up in time and will learn to bring to the table. Because if they do and then hopefully within the near future the product can lose the PG rating then they may be able to use these skills to further improve the quality of the product with a smart and dynamic approach to the business.
Did you enjoy RAW? Was it worthless? Email me your thoughts or drop me a message at beansontoastuk@msn.com or www.twitter.com/beansontoastuk
Martyn.
P.S. I wanted to mention the report shown on Wrestlezone showing photos of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson with his new physique. He has gained some fairly stated muscle mass in the past few months, apparently for a new film role. I was genuinely shocked by his size and he looks more like a Batista shape now rather than a lean athlete. It would be interesting to see how this would look in the wrestling ring (not that I think he hasn’t had to use enhancement drugs to get to that size) but unfortunately I still don’t see it happening anytime in the near future…….. DAMN!
