RAW Last Night and Billy Red Lyons

Raw last night was not especially memorable, save the lack of commercials and the at-times awkward product placement (KFC buckets on the announce tables ...), some excellent work between John Cena and the Miz, and Vince McMahon buying back Raw for twice what he sold it for. They changed up the stipulation for Sunday's match between Triple H and Randy Orton to be a 'three stages of hell' match (more on that tomorrow on ITVR), and Vince had a schitzo night being booed by the fans in his interactions with Trump, but taking out his frustrations on the heel Randy Orton (also a good job by him and Triple H, by the way).

Trump, in his short tenure as Raw owner, proved his lack of business sense as well by offering a refund on Raw tickets to all comers in the arena last night - so definitely some interesting moments and some decent wrestling, and some better-than-average promos/skits due to the lack of commercials, but nothing that felt like a go-home show in terms of Sunday's PPV - the show itself and its novel commercial-free status and Trump's presence kind of took away from that build. It wasn't awful, and it got good ratings, proving to Vince & Co. that despite our griping the Donald's stunt-casting worked, just for a show before a PPV, with a special feature like no commercials, and a celebrity appearance in Trump, it could have been even bigger is all I'm thinking. Still - entertaining anyway. :) It was also just unfortunate that Matt Hardy - who's been working through a broken hand the last 6 weeks or so - tore a pec on last nights show; he's expected to be out 3-4 months. Again - more on all of this and the buildup to The Bash on tomorrow's ITVR.

And finally, on a sad note, Canadian Wrestling personality Billy Red Lyons has died at the age of 77. He was the face of the 'event centre' for the then-WWF coming to Canada when I started watching wrestling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where he would run down cards coming to Maple Leaf Gardens and signing off with his trademark "Dontcha dare miss it!" - Lyons was a recognizable and legendary figure in Toronto wrestling and he will be missed.