RAW Thoughts

So as promised I'm back with my Raw reactions to last night's show. Won't be terribly detailed tonight - tune in tomorrow night for Ari's and my more in-depth feedback, and our analysis as to how No Mercy is shaping up. But as my last entry was a copout for not writing this weekend I figured I could and should do better than "Tune in tomorrow night". And hey - who knows, as I warm up I could go on anyway. lol It's been known to happen. Anyway ...

Last night's show was a real mixed bag, which is almost the direct opposite of most Raws of late. Most recent Raws have not sucked as the last couple of years have; yet they haven't exactly hit the stellar highs of the mid-to-late-1990s and the early part of this century either. Last night exemplified everything that could go right - and wrong - with the show. My biggest compliment is they tried a lot of new things - much of it worked. Some didn't.

One new tack was having the main event - World Champion Chris Jericho vs. former champ CM Punk in a steel cage - on first. Solid match, with a flukey ending that gave Jericho a clear enough win (they knew the rules going into it and CM Punk should have known better than to punch or headbutt Jericho in the direction of the door, instead of pulling him in towards the ring), while still appearing just flukey enough that it doesn't discredit Punk any further. I was dubious about placing this match first, and it WAS A tough act to follow, but with Shawn Michaels' return at the end of the night to announce the No Mercy main event, and an excellent mass promo from the main event set (plus Glamarella) of Batista, JBL and Chris Jericho midway through the show, momentum wasn't really lost and in fact it was a good way to get the audience into the show.

Excited about Michaels-Jericho at No Mercy. I wish in all good conscience they could carry this out to WM - Jericho vs. Michaels has been their biggest feud of the year, it should have been for the gold long ago, and Michaels truly deserves a solid title shot after his work with John Cena last year and his sendoff of Ric Flair at WM. Those are all the ingredients of a match which should not be wasted on a lower-rent non-"Big Four" (Summerslam, Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series) PPV - but I also understand there's a fine line between bringing a feud to a slow boil and constantly adding some twists and turns to it to stretch it out, and letting something get old and stale.

As much as they've found new points of interest to this feud (Jericho's heel turn and bloodying of Shawn with the Jeritron; the accidental punch to Rebecca Michaels; Jericho's title win after Shawn pinned him that night), it can only go on so long, and it will be a great match these two on a ladder. So I give thumbs up for the story, a solid A+. and a B+ for the delivery - as much as Adamle tried to hold off on announcing Michaels as Jericho's challenger and build suspense, we all knew who it would be; and it does feel a bit hotshotted. We'll see if they pull anything out at NM to let this continue ... and might I say ... finally a title match that is actually unpredictable from the get-go, instead of having to really bait and switch and swerve to get the surprise element (ie Punk getting knocked out of the Scramble match last week).

The promo with Batista, Jericho, et al was awesome. Batista hasn't been that strong on the mic in a long time and he impressed me; it also was entertaining to see Santino Marella - who as the IC champ is technically the number 2 guy on Raw and the official, default #1 contender to the World title - in with the big boys. Rey-Kane had a decent match following a decent promo by Kane. But here's where the positives end. The rest of the show felt kind of like a poorly-planned out cluster-y'know what. It's like someone woke up yesterday morning and "Oh shyte, it's Monday!". I mean, let me get this straight - Paul Burchill goes from being the #1 contender to then-Kofi Kingston's IC belt, to fodder for a JAMIE NOBLE squash? Don't get me wrong, Layla explaining her longheld disdain for Noble and going with Regal was interesting and I've been a fan of this story, but really ...? Jillian sang, from what I could gather, for the few minutes we saw her onscreen, plus through the commercial - such pain for the live audience. The King, and Charlie Haas as JR, and Kofi Kingston vs. Priceless and Manu? Like ... huh?

So yeah - I did go on more than intended here but I think my point is proven. When Raw was good it was very, very good. But when it sucked, it sucked. We've got a very strong main event scene right now on Raw, and are starting to spend some time on the midcard (Dibiase-Rhodes/Manu, Layla-Regal-Noble, Mysterio-Kane) ... but now let's do the impossible. Let's add some logic and some good synergy and gelling to help the show run as smoothly and seamlessly as it did ten years ago. 6.5 out of 10 for this week.