Sure I figured Seth Green as Raw’s GM for the night was kind of a lame idea. But I was so wrong about that. Raw was a mixed bag for me, but I didn’t find Raw a total wash out because Green along with a few other superstars did enough for me to like what I saw, now no way was this show as good as last week’s but as I said, even though there were things that kind of puzzled me I liked Raw. Wow I hope all of that made sense, let me start off with things that I either didn’t like, OR matches that could have come off better, but with lack of build up I just didn’t get why Vince bothered to even put the matches on TV. Okay let me start out with the Women’s bathing suit match.
This was one segment that just bugged me. Hey if McMahon wants to strut the divas out in swimsuits, I am fine with that. But when I think of WWE’s divas in swimsuits, I’m going more with eye candy, you know the women that are not known for good wrestling skills. So my problem with the Swim Suit Spectacular was that Mickie James, Maryse and Gail Kim were a part of it. I was fine with Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes and even Kelly Kelly involved in this, but I think that James, Maryse and Kim deserve to show their “stuff” in the ring wrestling not parading in bikinis. Listen this match was good and I would have preferred that the focus would have been on wrestling, so this theme took away from what could have been a very solid match of the evening. Don’t I sound like a prude? You know as I said let the swimsuits flow as much as Vince wants too, but just don’t put the top women wrestlers in a segment like that. So that was really one segment that I really didn’t like. I really hated watching Chavo vs. Hornswoggle. I didn’t watch their match on Superstars, and the thought of watching Chavo and the little guy have a rematch was the last thing that I needed to see. I’m getting the idea that this might be Vince’s way of getting rid of Chavo, I mean it doesn’t get any worse than feuding with Hornswoggle does it? See this is what happens when your shows are rated PG. It’s not always a pretty site. These were my least favorite segments of the night. However, I did have a problem with three matches.
Okay stay with me here. I didn’t mind the Primo vs. Miz match. Yeah it was a little over two minutes long, but there was a lot of promise there. What I did mind was that that the Miz, the guy that really rocked Raw for week’s with his anti Cena promo’s went from almost being a top tier guy, to going right back to the mid card status. While Primo was calling his brother Carlito out for attacking him the week before, it was the Miz that came out. While the Miz threw out a few insults at Primo, he wasn’t the Miz that had those flawless promos against John Cena. And while he did those flimsy insults never once did he mention Cena. It was like the whole Cena/ Miz thing never happened. Needless to say I was very disappointed with the way this all went down. I think if the Miz would have been able to spew some really good lines then all of this would have come off so much better and it would have made the match have a lot more meaning to it. I did like the appearance of Carlito at the end. He’s back to spitting his apple out of his mouth and this time it all landed on Primo. Hopefully this feud will be a nice rub for Primo.
It absolutely pained me to watch Evan Bourne get buried by the Big Show I mean come on as soon as that match was set up you knew that Bourne was going to lose and lose big. Here’s a guy that the fans have been behind since his debut and now that he’s on Raw he’s become a rag doll for the Big Show. I really didn’t like this at all, but I did enjoy listening to Kofi Kingston at the announce table. Kofi was low-keyed but so nice to listen too. Hey maybe it’s that accent; yeah it could be because I find Kofi very relaxing to take in. And finally, do you all remember last week when MVP knocked a homerun out of the park with his guest Jack Swagger in the MVP Lounge? Not only did Montel, do a great job, but Swagger came off better than ever. After watching that segment I was really hyped for a MVP/Swagger feud. And after that HOT segment I thought oh yes this is going to be good. Well my enthusiasm ended when MVP took on Swagger. Just like the Miz vs. Primo this wasn’t a bad match. In fact I was very happy with the way this came off, I thought Swagger and MVP did a damn good job out there. But you know what? This match had absolutely no build up whatsoever Monday night. I cannot understand how you could get so much out of these two guys in a non wrestling segment last week, and then just throw that all away and quickly stick them into a match. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was for the lack of any hype. All three matches that I just mentioned could have been so much more if they had been booked right and if creative would have done their job and given two out of three of these matches some build up with some strong promo’s.
But there were stars Monday night and the first group of stars had to be the Orlando, Florida crowd. These fans were on fire, and I was blown away by the reaction that Triple H received. Man I couldn’t have been happier. And the opening, which started out with Hunter and Seth Green and then with Randy Orton, was excellent. I thought Hunter was on his game introducing and putting over Seth Green. As I said I wasn’t expecting much from Green but I have to say I was really glad that he was given a shot Monday night. I wouldn’t say that I’m a Seth Green fan, but I always enjoyed him in the Austin Power movies as Dr. Evils son, and being a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I thought he was good on that show as well. But as far as sticking him on Raw? Well I couldn’t see it, but I was way off, because anytime he was on, he played his part so well. Now going back to the opening, I really liked watching Hunter and Seth interacting and the crowd seemed to be right in there as well. And when Randy joined it got even more fun to watch. I thought Orton came off so well when he was insulted that Green was even there. Everything here just worked perfectly and the more Green was on the better it got. And let’s not forget that he set up a main event that would turn out to be quite enjoyable. He put himself in the match with John Cena and Triple H vs. Orton and Legacy. This would turn out to be quite good.
I can’t tell you how much of a kick I got out of Chris Jericho’s meeting with Green. Jericho was so good Monday night. His snotty cocky attitude toward Green was a riot and I was glad that Seth didn’t back down, or didn’t get riled up, no Green would just give it back to Jericho as cool and calm as could be. Jericho had that I’m Better Than You persona and he went right from Green to the ring and started bitching and complaining about Edge, his injured tag team partner. I have to say Jericho was just awesome here. And the whole time that he was blasting Edge for being injury prone, I could just tell that this was the start of Edge returning as a baby face. What I am really enjoying about Jericho is that he’s coming off like he’s the most brilliant person in the world. He uses nice big words and Monday night he compared Edge to Achilles by pointing out that it was the Achilles tendon that was their demises. And then he said that Edge was the weak link of their team and he talked about how injury prone Edge was and that he should never have chosen someone so frail. Jericho then came up with the killer of the night. Jericho said that he shouldn’t be punished because of Edge and forced to drop the tag team titles. He said that because he’s so smart he had a clause put in the contract that if Edge was injured Jericho could pick his own tag team partner. This had me laughing; he just was so sure that Edge would end up hurt while they were partners. I can’t tell you how much I loved this. And then Chris said that he would choose someone devious, cunning and the exact opposite of Edge. Oh yeah and he would be truthful, and honest. This was such a great segment. Jericho just gets more entertaining each week. Anyway as he’s talking about a partner, Mark Henry comes out with a smile.
Of course Cole and Lawler want us to believe that Henry is Jericho’s new partner, but I’m not that dumb. Henry comes out with a big smile and puts his arm around Jericho, and Jericho has a big grin on his face. That is until Henry says he didn’t come out to be his partner, he came out to be his opponent. Then the grin turned into a sick look and trust me it was a hysterical watching Jericho’s facial expressions at this point. Henry hit a very hard clothesline on Jericho and ripped off his suit jacket and shirt, leaving just Jericho’s tie on him. Again this was funny and the crowd seemed to love it as much as I did. Jericho tried to leave but then returned and the match took place. Naturally Chris didn’t fare so well and all in all this was one of the best segments of the night. I like Henry playing a face for a change and so far in the three weeks that he’s been on Raw he’s been used very well. And Jericho is just brightening up any show that he appears on.
Okay so there were a few backstage segments that I liked. One was with Legacy and Orton and Rhodes giving it to DiBiase Jr., about how is dad (Dusty) might be the GM next Monday night. Cody got a little dig in by saying that unlike some people he has a great relationship with his dad. Of course Ted Jr. didn’t take kindly to that remark and Orton had to step in to stop things from escalating. Then Randy and his boys talked about how to handle Cena, Triple H and Seth Green. Orton wanted Green for himself. This was a good segment probably because there was more dissension between Legacy thanks to the Rhodes remark. And I thought the segment with Green, Cena and Triple H was fun to watch. They each tried to prepare Green for their tag team match. One of the best parts here was when Green took a shot from his inhaler. The interaction between all three came off with humor and just to repeat myself Green really shined Monday night. And this segment took us right into the 6-man tag team match and I loved it. Even thought we’ve seen Cena, Hunter and Orton go at it a lot, with Seth Green in there we got something a little different. What I wanted to say about Green’s character Monday night was that I loved the how naive and how innocent he came off. He came off like a true fan in awe that he was there as the GM. I never thought I would be so happy with Green but you can tell I was. I thought the main event came off so well partially do to Green’s naivety. Green’s reactions were gold, and having Cena and Triple H do all they could to protect him just added to all of this. Also when Hunter held him up on his shoulder I couldn’t get over how Seth Green looked like a 10 year old kid. I never realized how small Seth Green is until I saw him next to Hunter, Big Show and a few others. This was my match of the night, and Seth Green was my star of the night, with Chris Jericho a very close second.
Now this might not have been the best Raw, but it certainly wasn’t the worst Raw. It definitely had some very strong segments and now we get ZZ Top as next week’s GM’s. I have NO idea what to expect, I can’t even imagine how they will come off. Okay now chances are that I wont’ be able to get a Smackdown column out again this weekend. This week we have the final inspection, but we also have some odds and ends that we have going on, so it’s still busy here but a good busy. You guys have been so damn understanding and please put up with me just a little longer and then it’s back to business. I did read the Smackdown spoilers and they read very well so I’m looking forward to the show. Okay look for me next week with my ZZ Top Raw thoughts.
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