I have seen a few reviews of Raw this week and neither of them were too flattering, so Im gonna post my thoughts of what I believe to be a very entertaining Monday night.
The Opening Segment: aah the bold font brings so much to the article. I thought this was one of the highlights of the show. We had the interaction between Cena and Nexus but the real star here IMO was Randy Orton. I thought he delivered some of his best lines in recent memory. His calling out of Cena on hustle, loyalty and respect, followed by ordering him to get out of his ring were great. Say what you will about the storyline but Orton really delivered here.
Michael Cole: I forgot about Coles brief interaction here and I gotta say I am becoming a fan. He certainly has yet to master the art of the commentator heel and is at times still too back and forth for my liking but without question, every time he takes the podium for that first time and he delivers that line “Can I have your attention please, I have received ANOTHER email from the GM” the crowd is absolutely eating out of his hand. And by that I mean booing the shit out of him. If he plays this up a little more, after time he is gonna be a very good on air heel. After all most people already hate him, so hes on his way there.
Sheamus, Santino, Kozlov : Like most people I enjoyed this segment. Anytime Santino is on air is a good thing, I just wonder if we ll ever see him as a credible in ring threat. The one thing that slightly disappoints me here is Vladamir Kozlovs role. I was actually a fan of this guy during his first run on Smackdown and I think he is a much better in ring talent than most people give him credit for.(thats right) Hes big, foreign, has a unique style and can be entertaining on the mic. Say what you like but he is far more talented than many of the big men Vince loves to put in this role. For starters how about the CHOSEN ONE. I’ll take Kozlov over McIntyre and others any day of the week. (feel free to comment on that one)
Pee Wee Herman: That just feels weird typing that in a wrestling article. My head actually hurt watching his first interaction with Mark Henry and the divas. (nice to see Lita back and she did look hot) I thought his whole appearance would bomb until he popped off the line, if you love him so much why don’t you marry him. Like most I am not much of a fan of the interaction with Show and Miz but the Herman, Riley and Miz interaction was a great segment.
R-Truth: The feedback I have seen so far is less than positive but I am a big fan of R-Truths role as of late. There was a war of words and even songs between R-Truth and Cena back when Ron was in TNA and I think that is exactly where this interaction is leading, to a feud between the two. Truth has amazing athleticism, good amount of charisma and gets a big crowd reaction (before the new song anyways) and his talent would interact very well with a heel John Cena. Once Cena does go heel at Survivor Series, look for this to be one of his first feuds.
Daniel Bryan: This almost goes without saying that anytime this man is on tv, more specifically in the ring it is an absolute pleasure to watch and one of the reviews before me was right, it looks like the WWE universe is finally starting to realize this mans true ability. Lets just hope that Vinnie Mac sees that and he continues to gets the push he deserves.
Mr. McMahon: Speaking of Vinnie Mac, he came back out of his on air coma, at least in Stephanies dream. (really Steph is that what you wear to bed, come on) I actually liked this segment, came off well, didn’t really care for the political tone but at least he made light of the 50 mil Linda spent. (DAMN) Dont think anyone knew who Freddie Prinze Jr. was because he got no reaction from the crowd. To me Vince is almost always a good addition on air and I think he will emerge from his on air coma just in time to help clear up the storyline surrounding the Raw GM storyline. He’ ll be a welcome addition IMO.
Main Event: Nothing spectacular here, Cena played the role of impartial ref to help set the stage for Survivor Series. Which leads me to believe he will finally make the turn. If creative has any sense or timing, they will see the light and finally pull the trigger on the much anticipated Cena heel turn.
Final Thoughts: None of the matches were spectacular and on Raw they rarely are, I guess I have come to expect that in part. But there were some very entertaining segments here and maybe more so than anything, this show left the potential for some great upcoming stories. The potential Cena heel turn, the GM finally revealing himself, John Morrison actually being in a credible feud, Daniel Bryan continuing to be pushed and Triple H’s impending return. To me this not only made for an entertaining Raw but left the door open for the upcoming weeks to be very compelling TV. If these are the months leading into the best time of the wrestling year, the road to WM, I feel optimistic about the weeks and months to come.
Until then folks, take care of yourselves and each other.
