Linda's Thoughts - Raw I Liked It But ------------

Posted by Linda Robin on 08/31/04 at 8:53 PM

This is one of my columns where I liked the show yet it was far from perfect. There were a lot of things that just didn’t work, like a fairly dead crowd from the start. “Relatives” that got squashed by a monster, A few matches that came off bland. A WWE superstar that was on but wasn’t at the arena and seemed to be in fabulous health. A feud that ran its course but got restarted last night. And a group of “ladies” that acted like total idiots last night. But I still liked the show. Let me try to explain.

I’m going out of order because I think more than anything Shawn Michaels showing up at the Republican Convention and not being at Raw live was just plain stupid. I’ll tell you why. First? Shawn has been out for what two months? He was taken out after Kane brutally beat the hell out of him. Remember the angle was that he couldn’t breathe and his wrestling career might be over? And last night there’s Shawn looking not only healthy but damn good. That’s the female coming out in me. And while I think it’s great that Shawn, along with Ivory and Linda McMahon want to register voters, with a pay per view less than two weeks away, having Shawn there was ridiculous. At least Ivory could have said things like, we’ve missed you. You seem to be doing well after that horrible beating Kane gave you. Just something should have been said. But no nothing was brought up and now it’s like why would Shawn bother to go after Kane. Yeah last night that angle was kind of killed off.

This upset me very much. And to take this even further. Shawn should have shown up at the arena and then we wouldn’t have had to see some dumb ass group of “Hardy” boys come out supposedly to upset Lita. None of that made any sense at all. They come out with wigs and Matt’s actions and Kane takes each one out. Oh yeah that’s the way to get to Lita. By far all of this was the most disappointing part of the show last night. Now will Shawn show up next week or will we have to wait until Unforgiven? I think to wait until the ppv would again be totally stupid. Okay the crowd was dead. Did they have reason to be? Sure but I could tell from the start they weren’t going to add to the show. One of my friends that was their live said that the arena was empty; he had never been to event where the arena was as empty as last night. He also thought the crowd was dull and they brought him down. Well they kind of brought me down too. But I can’t blame them totally, they had plenty to dislike.

I was totally disappointed with a few of the matches. Like Batista vs. William Regal. This went nowhere, and now I’m back to thinking that William should just manage and not wrestle. Last week too I couldn’t get into him during his match with Ric Flair. And speaking of Flair even with one of the best in the business, Chris Benoit that match didn’t do much for me either. I thought would be one of the top matches of the night. Maybe Ric needs to take time out of the ring, I think we are getting too much of him and it’s just not working. We did find out last night that Ric and Batista will team up against Regal and Benoit at Unforgiven. Hopefully that will work. And finally the wanabe diva’s. My God what a train wreck! How necessary was it to watch each one trash talk the other? And to make matters worse again their main competition Carmella got a lot of crap last night. Listen I want her off too but Christy, Amy and Joy more made total asses out of themselves with language that had to be bleeped out continuously.
Not only that, but the more that Joy and Amy laid in on Carmella I’m sure the more the votes came in for Carm. This was just one atrocious segment, and thankfully the only one of the night with the girls.

Now I just took a deep breath I got rid of all the negatives and it’s now all good. The crowd might have been dull, but I sure heard the Randy chants. He’s over and believe me he’s going to be more over as time goes on. His interacting with Hunter was super. He’s not the cutesy face he’s the face that still has some edge to it some cockiness to it and he’s getting the best of Hunter. Watching Hunter quickly retreat from Randy wielding Hunter’s favorite weapon, the sledgehammer was great. Triple H showed signs of cowardness and Randy showed signs of standing on his own not backing down to Hunter or any member of Evolution. The opening was a great way to keep showing the fans that Randy as champion is the way to go.

Now I’ might not have liked the Hardy crap but watching Kane and Lita interact I do enjoy. First Kane is still coming off with that sweet BS grin. When he and Lita were walking to the ring, Trish said oh look he’s already acting married he’s taking the trash out, Kane got into Trish’s face and then smiled and said that was a good one. And then after the failed Hardy skit, Lita came into the ring very tough very strong and told Kane that he is her property and since Eric gave Kane a contract to wrestle anyone he wanted to at Unforgiven, Lita came up with Shawn Michaels. Kane wasn’t pleased but I was, because Lita and Kane definitely have chemistry and now with Shawn involved things should come together in and out of the ring where Kane is concerned. Rhyno taking on both Rob Conway, Sylvan Grenier and yes Coach was okay. And I understand why that was done. Tajiri has a knee injury and that is the reason they kept him out of the ring. I hope it’s not going to keep him out long I really want to see Rhyno and Tajiri get those tag team belts.

Now this is not good but again I understand why it’s happening. Earlier I said that an old feud just got restarted. And yeah I’m talking about Christian’s return and his surprise attack on Chris Jericho. In all honesty I read rumors that this was going to happen and I dreaded it. We had plenty of this for how many months. But now with Edge injured and who knows how long he’ll be out of action I guess by getting Christian in there they will reunite the brothers, that part I don’t mind. Jericho against Christian that I could do without. Edge certainly looked to be in a lot of pain last night, and I thought he did a very nice job as the guest of the Highlight Reel. Jericho also came through; it was just when Christian showed up that I got turned off. And the fans just showed no excitement for Christians return and I can’t blame them.

The main event with Hunter taking on Eugene was good. Not great but good. This was a no dq match so I was waiting for the chairs, the sledgehammers, Regal and Evolution to show up while this was going on. But that didn’t happen. Eugene definitely seems to have lost the fans love. And I don’t want to see Hunter involved with Eugene anymore it’s old it’s done. I knew as I’m sure many of you did that Eugene would win because Randy whom earlier was escorted out of the building would show up and make sure Hunter lost. And that’s just what happened. It’s funny usually when someone comes out as the match is going on the crowd gets loud and looks in that direction. But that didn’t happen I was so surprised to see Randy standing there holding on to the sledgehammer as Hunter was about to let Eugene have it. So even though it was a predictable ending, the way Randy showed up caught me off guard. Randy did attack Hunter with the sledge. He got him right in the gut and then Hunter got the RKO and Randy pulled Eugene on top of Hunter for the win. A nice ending and a nice way to humiliate Hunter even more.

So yeah the show had crap but it still was good and I know that sounds totally ridiculous. But I wasn’t bored, maybe pissed off a few times but the show still held my interest. With one Raw left and Eric making Randy vs. Kane for next week, you just know Hunter will be out for Randy and if it’s done right Shawn will show up and go after Kane. So I look forward to the last Raw before the big pay per view. And I look forward to Impact and Smackdown. I want to see Kurt Angle and Eddie’s feud heat up. And I wonder if they will play up Chavo’s injury that was accidentally caused by Billy Kidman? The show should be a good one. On Impact I’m hoping for an AJ Styles match and I look forward to guys from the X-Division showing their stuff in the ring. Again I think Impact will deliver.

Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com

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