Linda's Thoughts - And It's Off To Unforgiven

Posted by Linda Robin on 09/07/04 at 9:51 PM

Last night Raw was super. What an improvement from last week’s show. And the Dallas crowd was phenomenal. This was one of those crowds that wanted the viewers at home to know that THEY WERE THERE! What a great group. Raw did a very good job of setting up Unforgiven. And thankfully the wannabe Diva segment was cut down. Everything worked last night.

I loved the opening segment. Talk about setting the tone for the rest of the show. Eric Bischoff was in the middle of the ring inside of the steel cage. He announced that HHH would once and for all finish off Eugene in a cage match. The crowd seemed to like this one. And then, standing next to a draped object, Eric informed the fans that since Edge would be out at least 4-6 weeks with a badly torn groin the IC title could not be defended within the traditional 30 days. So good old Eric stripped Edge of the belt. And that naturally brought in Mr. Obnoxious, Christian. He expected the belt to be handed to him. After all Christian’s peeps would riot in the streets if their beloved guy didn’t have the belt. This brought out Chris Jericho and things started getting really good. Jericho came up with the “Why not have a match right now and see who gets that belt” idea. Oh the fans loved it, but the happiness was taking away immediately when Bisch announced that that match would happen but not there it would take place at Unforgiven. Okay now I will admit I wasn’t happy about another pay per view match with Jericho and Christian. But my mind quickly changed when Jericho cane up with a Ladder Match.

A Ladder Match I can definitely live with, because these two guys are going to make this probably the match of the night. Both men are such pros with this gimmick match. I have to say I was surprised that this was set up since Christian just came back after four months from a back injury. But it’s a go and I can’t wait to see it. So we have a very hot opener and now it’s the first match of the night. William Regal/Chris Benoit/Rhyno and Tajiri vs. Batista/Ric Flair/Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier. I thought this match was good not great but good. This match gave the fans a taste of what’s to come on Sunday. Like will La Resistance say good bye to the titles? And will Chris Benoit and William Regal take care of Flair and Batista? This match was definitely entertaining to watch. Randy Orton’s interview with Todd Grisham wasn’t Randy’s strongest but he got the point across that Hunter isn’t winning on Sunday. Now I wasn’t pleased with the Trish turn a few months ago. But each time she has some interaction with Lita it’s great.

And last night was no exception. Trish managed to get the best of Lita again. Trish loves to get down and dirty and last night she praised Lita for inserting Shawn Michaels into the match with Kane. But she added that it was too bad that Lita let Kane insert himself in her. Yeah Trish has come a long way and I’m very impressed with the heel Trish. After Lita threatened to take care of Trish once the “baby” is born, Nidia showed up. She started speaking Spanish at Trish and Ms. Insult told her she didn’t understand German. Quite humorous. Hey did you all know that now Nidia is from Puerto Rico. Yeah that’s what Lillian said when Nidia made her entrance. I see a whole new side of Nidia starting and I hope they know what they are doing. I liked her match with Trish mainly because of Trish. Like her heel mic work I found Trish’s in ring work to come off very well last night. Maybe because she hadn’t wrestled for a while, but last night she seemed to dominate the match like a heel should. I was pleased with what I was seeing.

Okay it’s time for Eugene to be destroyed. Well that’s what Hunter has promised week after week. And last night before this match he and Eric talked and Hunter again said that Eugene would be no longer after he got done with him. And Eric immediately glowed and wanted to throw Hunter a party to celebrate the end of Eugene. Hunter wanted that party to wait until next week on Raw when he comes out with the world title. Well that’s not going to happen but if Hunter wants to think that then I will let him. But seriously it’s now time for the Cage Match. And watching Eugene panic and bite his nails in there while waiting for Hunter was great. Eugene did one hell of a job selling his nervousness. This match was short and it finally did what it was supposed to do. Have Hunter take Eugene out and take him out as rotten as a person can. God I loved this, Hunter first threw Eugene face first into the cage and then Eugene was busted. And once that happened Hunter took Eugene’s face shredding it against the cage causing Eugene more pain. And then on the second rope with Eugene Hunter took him down with his knee right into his shoulder. Eugene screamed in pain. Just when you thought it was over, and Hunter was leaving, Hunter returned and as Eugene was trying to get out through the door; Triple H slammed it on Eugene’s bad arm. Oh yeah I loved this. Finally Hunter came through. It looks like Eugene is FINISHED. This match was done perfectly, Hunter came off looking like the violent jerk he portrays and it gets the character Eugene out and maybe opens the door for Nick Dinsmore (Eugene) to show up as Eugene’s twin looking for payback on Hunter, Uncle Eric and anyone else that caused Eugene harm. This was one nice segment.

Edge gave a nice performance with his interview with Coach. Edge wasn’t happy about being stripped of the IC title. Edge was definitely pissed that Eric didn’t wait the 30 days and believe me Edge isn’t going to let this one slip. Kane and Lita didn’t have as much interaction between the two last night. And I missed that. But the little they had worked. Kane in the locker room showed Lita just what he did to Shawn Michaels back in June. And then he told Lita that she is just as responsible for what happens to Michaels as Kane is, after all they are partners now. Kane still had that creepy way about him that is just so good when talking to her. Calling her dear, precious and honey. He expected her to be down by the ring as Randy Orton becomes Kane’s next victim. Again a nice segment not long but it worked. I just think it’s ashame that Shawn wasn’t on. With last night being the last show before Unforgiven having Michaels there would have just gotten things going so much better.

Let’s see Jericho was stuck with Tyson Tomko last night. Not much of a match, thankfully it was short. And Captain Charisma, Christian came up with that one brought out a ladder and after he managed to help Tomko beat Jericho and then use the ladder to take out Jericho, Christian stood on the top of the ladder and came off like King Of The Jungle. Last night Carmella, Amy, Christy and Joy came out in gowns instead of bikinis. There’s a new idea. Anyway Stacey was there and she announced that they would arm wrestle with the winner throwing chili Texas chili on the losers. This was short thank God stupid but short. Christy won and the rest were walking meals. Amy lost and if you go to WWE.com there’s a video with Amy. I didn’t see it, but I read that she injured her arm from arm wrestling and was in tears from the pain and she also has a few choice words for Carmella. So now it’s Joy, Carmie and Christy, okay I say Joy goes next week.

On to the main event. Kane vs. Randy Orton. This match was really fast, in fact so fast I thought Spike TV was cutting WWE’s time since the ratings have been so low. However Kane won when Randy was disqualified for low blowing the big ape trying to protect himself from a chair shot. As I said this match was over fast, but was it? No, it was not, Hunter ran out and started signaling for the cage to come down. Eric stood at the top and declared that the match is now a cage match and it would go on. And Orton was now stuck with Kane in the cage. Hunter was out there taunting Randy the whole time. And while this might not have been the greatest cage match it was good and the fans seemed to be into it totally. Randy hit Kane nice and hard with the chair gave Kane the RKO and got the win. As Orton was coming out of the cage Hunter was in the way, Hebner was yelling for Hunter to move, Orton was able to ram the door into Hunter instead of the other way around. It was a nice move on Randy’s part. This brought out the rest of Evolution and the three members ganged up on Randy. It was then back in the cage for Randy with Evolution and Kane. Ah but quick thinking Orton threw the chair at Hunter’s face and climbed up the cage even with Hunter trying to hold him back Randy managed to get out.
A nice ending to a very good show that definitely got me ready for Unforgiven. And I’m ready for Impact which I hope will be on Friday here and Smackdown. Now let me end with this Paul Heyman according to what I’ve read is back on the creative team and was at Raw last night? HMM could that be why the show appealed to me so much? I think they made the right move putting Heyman back behind the scenes as well as in front of the cameras.

Email lvacccarp@hotmail.com

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