Hello one and all. Welcome to The Stockwell Section – it has been a while since my last column but I intend on making up for lost time. So lets kick off proceeding with a recap on this week’s Slammys Raw.
To be quite honest, I’m a tad confused with the Slammy Awards. My main issue was with the Superstar of The Year and Diva of The Year categories. The general concept of an award is to recognize excellence in a particular field, so why WWE choose to award the Slammy based on the winner of a Battle Royal and Public Opinion and is just beyond me.
Now, in kayfabe, McCool possibly is the Diva of The Year – she has accomplished more then any other female star this year, she (along with Layla) have pretty much carried the WWE Diva Division and to top it off, she has won numerous big matches, at least for the division she is in. If the same was done for Superstar of The Year and HHH won the match, would he be a worthy winner of the title? No, he wouldn’t because he hasn’t done much this past year. Like I said, McCool is quite a worthy winner of the title but winning it in such a fashion was really odd.
Of course, the public voted and John Cena was voted Superstar of The Year. I understand it was by fan vote but it still rubbed me the wrong way regardless as I thought there were others more worthy of the title. Granted, in kayfabe John Cena has had a big year what with his battle with Batista and then trying to rid WWE of Nexus but still, in comparison to say The Miz, Cena’s year has been abysmal – Miz, as you know has won every major title this year alone (including Money in The Bank) so wouldn’t that make him more worthy then Cena? I’d even consider Orton equally as long as Cena has this year and been in far more feuds.
Aside from the Cena win, I actually agreed with most of the winners this year, note that I’m not including the unbelievably ridiculous supplemental categories. The only two I didn’t agree with were the ones in which Randy Orton lost – I mean, that flying RKO was so much better then the FU off the stage, which I’m sure I’ve seen numerous times before and how Cole won Quote of The Year is really odd, Randy’s grandmother line was so much funnier. I probably would’ve picked Batista Quitting over Edge too, but hey, I understand why Edge won.
Another thing I’m confused about is why certain categories such as Match of The Year, Breakout Star and Tag Team were left out – Match of The Year was the one that really stuck out, mainly because there was so much focus on that award last year.
I wasn’t overly sold on Raw this week – the awards aspect of the night seemed badly handled but furthermore, the ideas and promos surrounding them which all seemed badly booked, none moreso then the little girl. I thought it was nice that WWE bought her along for the show, but she could’ve been used so much more effectively – seriously Miz could’ve really dug in deep with the little girl and he would’ve got a huge amount of heat. I read a comment following the show about how much love the girl would’ve got if she slapped Miz and I just kept thinking why didn’t WWE allow this to happen? Personally, I would’ve had the girl slap Miz and then Miz drag her to the ring for a skull crushing finale – seriously, it would’ve garnered an insane amount of heat. Plus, it’d be kinda funny to watch the girl get slammed down by Miz. I would’ve accepted a simple set up, only to be interrupted by Orton before doing so but no, like the whole segment, it was just brushed aside.
Back to Tag Team of The Year for a second – why did Kelly and Tyson present the Despicable Me Award? Surely, Kelly could’ve presented a Tag Team Award which would be collected by a lone Tyson, boosting how he carried the team – he still could’ve ripped on Kelly that way too. It just seemed like another point in the evening that WWE lost an opportunity to really do something.
Finally, the matches the evening produced, all of which seemed to be nothing more then PPV hype – The Orton Handicap Match and Cena Otunga weren’t exactly memorable but they served their purpose, as did the opening bout between Wade and Big Show. Then there was Miz and Rey which, yet again, just seemed to be included to hype the PPV and like all the others, it was overly rushed – but that was seemingly the approach for the night, be quick to hype the PPV or just be quick. Take for instance the tag match – this match could’ve been something truly spectacular but was rushed through way too quickly – although the stars did their best to make it enjoyable in the short time they had. It didn’t work for the most part on Monday but it did have one success that being the Sheamus and Morrison encounter which was intense and really helped build their upcoming match this Sunday and I must say, I really like Sheamus’ new royal attire, it just adds a nice touch to the Irish Star.
Also, I really enjoyed Cody Rhodes and his encounter with Sexual Chocolate – I must say, I’m becoming more and more of a fan of the second generation star and this past Monday, he was delightful to watch in the ring.
Then of course, there was the Diva Battle Royal which was incredibly horrible. Whomever booked this Battle Royal seemingly forgot all the basic story telling techniques to incorporate into a Battle Royal – for instance, nobody was made out to be the dominant figure in the match – in fact, the most dominant diva was Tamina in the early goings and she was eliminated shortly after – what fantastic booking that was. They didn’t even have the sense to build the team of Phoenix and Neidhart and have the two do battle with Lay-Cool for a while. I mean, you would assume that this would be a vocal point of the Battle Royal considering they announced the upcoming tag match for this Sunday – wouldn’t they want to push the feud in preparation for the upcoming TLC PPV? Considering the awards aspect of the evening, I thought I’d hand out an award of my own – My Worst Match of The Year….. This One!
I’m expecting the Tables Match this Sunday to be awful, but I’ll get to that in my Predictions column later this week.
Before I go, I just want to mention David Arquette. Arquette, I thought was fun to watch this past Monday and I couldn’t help but think that Vince was laughing his arse off whenever he was present – he was probably sitting back thinking – “you made this guy champion? No wonder your company folded”.
Anyhoo, I feel this may not be the last we see of Mr Arquette. His got promotional work to do for his new venture and with rumours of a WCW Hall of Fame Special, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mr Arquette inducted – possibly as part of the celebrity wing. I mean, Vince may laugh at him and the idea that he was a WCW Champion but he’d still induct him into a Hall of Fame, he inducted Pete Rose afterall.
Anyhoo, Until NXT TIME…..
