Raw Review for July  14, 2008 by:Colin "Colb" Bonham

 

The Raw Report – One Step Forward...One Step Back

I enjoyed last night’s Raw, as there was a lot of the good stuff we have been seeing since the Draft last month, but there was also some questionable booking from WWE, especially surrounding the Kane storyline. Oh well, I guess I can’t have it all! On to my thoughts of the show.

• For the third week running, the show opens with the Boss’s children pleading for unity, and vowing to come to RAW if things don’t change. One thing that WWE did a great job on last night was making sure that this ‘unity’ that the McMahon’s were calling for was completely ignored, which sets up an interesting show next week after the bash. We then cut straight to ringside where Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho are brawling, with Lance Cade getting involved also. Then the angle that I had been waiting for kicked off, where the deranged and seemingly Schizophrenic Kane walks down to the ring with a brown bag (is the mask in there?), scaring off Lilian and the ringside staff, before screaming I’m sorry to King and Cole. I thought this was well done, as it didn’t give too much away about what was going on with Kane, leaving it open for him to return again later in the night. We then cut backstage again to where Chris Jericho, Lance Cade and Shawn Michaels are again brawling. This whole opening segment was a very good start, as it really emphasized the chaos on the broadcast when there was ‘no one in charge’. Good Start.

• Mickie James and Katie Lea had a decent, fun match that the crowd was in to. But the questionable booking stepped in here, with Mickie getting the victory with the Lou Thesz press pin. Now I understand that Mickie is the Women’s Champion, and is the top dog in the Women’s division, but it would have made more sense to me, to have Paul interfere and give Katie a victory, seeing as Katie is the best suited to a women’s title feud right now. This leads to Paul getting in the ring and holding Mickie so that Katie Lea can work over Mickie, which gives her some of her heat back. Then we get Kofi Kingston to make the save, setting up an Intercontinental title match between himself and Burchill after the commercial break. This gave an element of importance to the championship, with the Champion, obviously heated up, reading and willing to put the championship on the line.

• The Match itself was good, especially when Kofi was allowed to be his energetic self. The crowd were way into Kofi, which means good things for his future. The Match ends with Kofi getting the victory after the Spin Kick. I have a feeling the fued between the Champ and Birchill isn’t over yet, so if that’s the case, Burchill and Kofi will have to develop better In-ring chemistry, because I didn’t really feel it last night. But time is definitely on their side.

• We then head backstage where Santino Marella is talking to Matt Striker about his open challenge. Key Kane segment two, as the Big Red Machine comes in to view demanding to see Punk. Santino asks him if he’s tried the Pepsi Machine. I smirked at this, as I happen to find Santino highly entertaining.

• After the commercial break, we see Kane in the locker room with CM Punk. Kane demands a match later in the show, saying he ‘needs this’. Punk accepts, looking as confused as the rest of us watching as to Kane’s motives. Some more good stuff from Kane, that set up what would seem like a climax later in the show in the match against Punk.

• I loved the John Cena segment with Todd Grisham last night – I thought Cena was fantastic. He really made the match at the GAB against JBL seem important, and the passion the man has for the business was again evident in the promo. He definitely gave it his all. Cena and Cryme Tyme then challenge JBL and two partners of his choice to the main event later that night. Very good segment.

• Having Beth Phoenix come out as Santino’s opponent and subsequently beating him was entertaining, and the crowd seemed to like it, and that’s all that really matters. Santino losing to Beth doesn’t hurt him much, as he’ll stay over because of his comedic value. Another fun segment.

• There’s no doubt that Kelly Kelly is hot, but I was honestly hoping that something would happen that would bar her from wrestling a singles match on the show. Thank God it did, with the tag champions making their entrance to spoil the upcoming match...shame. The whole next segment with the Tag Champs was done to set up JBL recruiting them for his team in the main event, after JBL was ‘impressed’ with what they had to say. The segment was fine, and Cody and Ted are decent and improving on the mic. Hacksaw was used to bring some heat for the Tag Champs, and it worked well. I think it’s going to take a lot more for the Tag Champs to get over than it has for someone like Kofi, because in reality there isn’t that much about the Rhodes or DiBiase that stands out or is different. But they are young talents, with bright futures, and I have no doubt that if they are continued to be used correctly, they will get over with the crowd, and become future stars of the show. I don’t know why, but something screams ‘Valet’ to me when I look at the team. The question would be who would be a suitable fit?

• I was really interested to see what they did with the Punk/Kane match, as I thought they were very limited in how they could end the match to keep both competitors strong. In the end, the DQ victory for Punk made the most sense. Kane then showed his sadistic side by trying to end Punk once and for all, putting a steel chair around the neck of Punk and going to the top rope. Key Batista entrance. This makes sense as the challenger doesn’t want to see Kane take out Punk with the title being on the line on Sunday. This is when the booking again because questionable. WWE had spent the first hour of the program building up Kane’s storyline, to have him be completely taken out of proceedings with a steel chair by Batista, like he didn’t even matter. Punk and Batista have a confrontation, which results in Batista spinebustering Punk. But where is Kane? Surely they could have thought about bringing the monster back into the picture, attacking one or both of the two in the ring, or at the very least, show him going ballistic at ringside after Batista leaves. But what do we get? Nothing. This disappointed me greatly, as any momentum Kane had built up over the night was virtually killed here. Could we see Kane again in the night? I was wrongfully hopeful.

• Chris Jericho and Paul London had a short but solid match. I liked how the commentators pointed out that London had wanted to emulate Shawn Michaels his whole life. It gave the match a little bit more meaning and significance. Obviously Jericho picks up the victory, and the post-match promo was good. I also liked Lance Cade at ringside with a chair, protecting himself and Jericho from another Michaels attack. This gave the match an edgy feel to it, as we could never be sure that Michaels wouldn’t return to the ring and attack the pair again. Instead Michaels comes out after Jericho’s promo, and says that they do agree on one thing, that on Sunday, the worst is yet to come. A good segment that did a good job of hyping up the PPV match on Sunday.

• I’ve enjoyed the segments with Jamie Noble since he came to RAW. I like his gimmick of him trying to impress the ladies with his talk, but not being able to back it up. I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, but I actually enjoyed Snitsky last night. Was I jumping up and down with excitement? No. But I thought he was effective in his role. It might even be worth turning Snitsky face, as he can’t get over as a heel. That nose break looked pretty bad though didn’t it?

• I liked how WWE re-showed the McMahon’s segment from the start of the show, just in case anyone missed it. The segment was very important to the theme of the show, to showing it again made a lot of sense.

• Finally we get to the main event, which I thought was a good, solid match. The story was that Rhodes, DiBiase and JBL isolated Cryme Tyme so that Cena could not get into the match. The crowd was way into the match, which made it that much better, and went wild when Cena finally got the tag, and the subsequent victory. After the match, JBL runs up the rampway towards the back, and taunts Cena to follow him. Cena obliges, and we have a game of chase. At this point I was still hoping for Kane to appear in some form and attack Cena, or at least just have Cena stumble upon Kane going crazy or insane, but nope. Then in one of the dumbest endings to a RAW in a long time, JBL props Cena up against a car after attacking him from behind, then proceeds to drive his own car in to the car that Cena was propped up against. Yeah...right. The only motive I can see for WWE creative ending the show this way was that things were definitely out of hand without someone in charge, but other than that, I thought it was stupid. If JBL had hit Cena, there’s no question it would have killed him. So obviously JBL had to miss, but when he got out of the car, his reaction was confusing. JBL would have obviously known he hadn’t hit Cena, cause he would have seen it happen. So knowing he hadn’t hit him, why didn’t he continue to look for Cena, or at least signal in some way that he’d missed him. A strange ending to an otherwise solid broadcast, minus the way they killed the momentum of Kane. They better do something good at the Bash or next week on RAW if they are going to make this heel turn be effective and work.