RAW Last Night

Not a bad show in many ways. I couldn't care less about Mark Cuban, honestly, in terms of who he is (not an NBA fan), but he's an entertaining character. I still stand by however that it was a waste and a loss to not have him interact with Vince McMahon on some level. But I suppose with Vince having been out two week ago with Jesse Ventura, and I assume he'll show up on next week's three-hour Raw for the Slammies, that might be a bit of McOverkill ...

What WASN'T overkilled, however, was the tribute to Eddie "Umaga" Fatu, who died on Friday. What tribute was that, you ask? You didn't see one? That's my point. I understand in light of the Benoit tragedy, in which Chris Benoit killed his wife and 7-year-old son before turning his violence towards himself, that the WWE doesn't especially want to be in the business of publicizing or hyping the deaths of too-young-to-go wrestlers and former wrestlers; but given how recently Fatu was under contract, and how recent and sudden his death, surely some kind of video package, or at least a photo 'In Memory Of' at the top of the show would have been appropriate.

Otherwise though this hit some decent notes for me; the entertainment aspect was great, with Hornswoggle and DX (although I have to go with Jason Powell on this one that any parent who buys their child (as they come in child sizes) Hornswoggle's "Littlest Member" DX t-shirt has issues. I also love that Chris Masters' rhythmic chest alone has actually put him over in a highly strange but real way. I'm not a fan that they bring Carlito back into the fold strongly last week, only to feed him to John Cena this week, and I don't entirely like the predicted even-steven booking on Orton-Kofi Kingston this week; I still feel the match this war of words and run-ins should have led to should have happened on PPV and not free Raw; however, they've done enough to let us feel we've gotten something for free, entertain us and whet our appetites, while making sure it's obvious the Main Course is going to be offered to us for $40 on Sunday at TLC.

Which they did a better-than-usual job of building up to this week. Almost all interactions with Mark Cuban centred on the road to TLC, and even the final shot, where Cuban got in Seamus' face and got driven through a table for his efforts, were a central final push to a heretofore uninspired (although not for lack of push and hype) feud between the Irishman and John Cena. Add that to some strong wrestling action (as strong as possible in <5 minute matches), and it was a decent Raw leading into what should hopefully be a great PPV ... it looks good on paper, let's hope it actually delivers.

We will talk about this and much more on Thursday night, all; in the meantime be sure and get me those predictions, thoughts on the year in review etc. :) It's all about sharin' the love at the Holidays. Hope everyone has a good and cozy night tonight and if you live in Southern Ontario, don't get stuck in the snow tomorrow! :) Enjoy some eggnog for me and we'll see you at the matches. ;)