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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Action Plan for a Live ITVR, and Raw Last Night

Before going into my thoughts on last night's Raw (a decent show, by the way), just wanted to update you on the stop-n-go plans to bring ITVR live on the air in the near-future. I was working on doing so for this week, but then it occurred to me the next two weeks are Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so no one will probably be listening live anyway. So the plan as of right now is to podcast tomorrow night's show (to be up around midnight or so), as well as next week's. New Year's Eve will also be podcast, and kind of a Year in Review/Best and Worst of ... kind of episode. And with any luck then, the first In This Very Ring of the New Year will be brought to you live over the interweb. :D Check back here for updates if that plan changes. And meanwhile, expect a good show tomorrow, lot's to talk about with Jeff Hardy's title win and just what that means for the company, who now has a world champion one bad session of peeing in a cup away from being fired.

As for Raw, my thoughts in no particular order are:

  • I actually liked the angle with Kane and Kelly Kelly. It's not exactly original, which is too bad, to have Kane pining after a girl he can't have, and assaulting her boyfriend, but it brings us back to the roots of the Kane character I suppose, and it was an interesting switch to have Kelly Kelly tell him she's dating the Miz when she clearly isn't. Taking bets on who Kelly's 'real' (kayfabe) boyfriend is?
  • I was disappointed they didn't go straight into the Punk-Regal match tonight as there are only so many Raws left in 2008 if they want to do the 'Punk wins all the titles in one calendar year' bit. But I suppose as the tag champs who just lost their belts, it makes sense that they want to give the fans who didn't see the title switch on TV a chance to see these two teams - Kingston/Punk and Miz/Morrison - go at it.
  • I feel bad for Hacksaw Jim Duggan and this was probably my biggest complaint about the show - Cryme Tyme takes him offscreen and from what I could see they never followed up on it. He's been mouthed off to and abused by heels for awhile and had just come off being insulted by Chris Jericho - I like that they addressed this issue, but just HOW?
  • I'd have liked to see Shawn Michaels and JBL actually live instead of a recap of last night - especially since we paid $40 to see that, and why since they now played it for the non-paying Monday Night audience. I am still not buying Shawn Michaels as being concerned he's going to end up playing for peanuts in high school gyms anywhere, but I did find this speech a bit more ... satisfactory, the second time around. And kudos to Shawn for playing this as well as he can given it's nonsense.
  • A good long main event, decent given the folks involved - a bit draggy but still impressive.
  • I like the 'former champions compete in 4 matches, winners compete in a four-way to determine the #1 contender' format Stephanie McMahon announced to choose John Cena's next opponent. It will take up a good 2-3 weeks of Raw, provide for some top-notch wrestling given some of the names involved in this mini-tournament, and it makes more sense than 'The #1 contender is whoever the champion hates most this week". It gives Raw, also, a wrestling focus for the coming weeks.
  • My only complaint about the above? I just found the 'Batista's rematch clause expired' thing hokey. Stephanie and Shane McMahon neglected to put him in a rematch as he requested in a timely fashion, and HE suffers? Oh well. He'll get his chance here. And the nice thing with this, given the 8 men involved, it is actually not easy to figure out who Cena's Royal Rumble opponent will be! (I'd say Tista, but I think they're saving that for Mania).

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