Raw Last Night - as promised

Well I did promise a Raw analysis tonight after a day to recover from an insane weekend ... and here I am. But I must say there's not much to comment on. Last night was the worst Raw I've seen in a long time. I tune in to wrestling for ... well ... wrestling, and - even more than others, perhaps, admittedly - the stories/angles, promos, interviews, skits. But I have never really been a serious game show fan - I can enjoy the odd one the odd time, if they're good, interesting and entertaining - but I have never EVER enjoyed bad game shows (depending how you consider "Change of Heart" lol). Vince McMahon can barely dial a phone, those skits dragged, took too long, and were the same thing over-n-over-n-over again. Although I will admit the first one, with Vince completely kerflummoxed over the first contestant's answertone, was frickin' hilarious.

And I didn't even see all the giveaways! This is the first Raw I didn't watch all the way through in months (yes, yes the more fool me), and apparently all I missed was Vince giving away $2 to someone for putting up with Jillian Hall singing (that poor woman was given a trip to New York as a consolation prize later on ... although it's a complete crap shoot how much Vince gives away and he's clear about that - I don't know if she deserved to be 'made up to' like that). Vince just seemed so out of touch, passing his contest off as bigger than any match, hotter than any diva, that crossed the TV - this might have even been better if done more quickly (perhaps even prerecorded over the preceding week, as the Diva Contest is), and/or by a more charismatic character (think someone like the Rock, although obviously not him - maybe Chris Jericho, MVP, Mick Foley or Ted Dibiase even) who could put the storylines and matches over while giving away the money.

The other inherent problem with the contest is that it's designed to keep people watching throughout the show - except that they give away the password at the very beginning and it's the same password through the night. Therefore, one could tune in to the opening segment and then go about their evening if they really aren't interested. To me, they should announce a new password for every call, as suggested over on I think it was Jason Powell's blog at http://www.prowrestling.net ... or then again, no. The whole concept's just crap. All these ideas would do would be to make it fewer degrees of crap.

Not to say there weren't a couple (precious couple) good moments on Raw. JBL and John Cena had a good match - I liked Cena and Triple H's mutual admiration society for each other on the mic, while interfering in each other's matches (although way to NOT make Jeff Hardy look strong - his win over Triple H was Cena's, not his own). And Jericho's final full-fledged heel turn on Michaels was tremendous; it was a great 'full circle' for Shawn, who first turned heel by ramming his Rockers tag team partner, Marty Jannetty, through a window, to have his head tossed through a TV screen. Perhaps this is the start of another run for the IC title for Shawn - a completely comfortable and sensible place for him to be at this point in his career, able to elevate younger talent, while still keeping him near enough to the top of the card for a last run with the Big Belt as his career winds down (remember - Ric Flair won about half of his world titles at an age older than HBK). It is just unfortunate that in a 2 hour show, there were really two shining spots amidst a bunch of sad images of a 60-year-old former genius who apparently no longer even knows how to dial a phone and entertain his audience of many years.