Raw Review for July  28, 2008 by: Colin "Colb" Bonham

 

The Raw Report: a-DAMN-le What were they thinking?!

Boy wasn’t the end of Raw last night an anti-climax or what?! After spending the best part of two hours building up to the unveiling of a new General Manager for Raw, Shane McMahon comes out and announces that the new General Manager for Raw is…MIKE Adamle…? I get that they wanted to get this guy off of commentary, but was this the best way they could think of?! Other than this peculiar appointment, and the again poor booking of The Big Red Machine, I thought Raw was a solid show, with some good wrestling and an excellent promo or two. On to my thought on the show:

• The show kicks off with John Cena, who makes his way to the ring to a mixed reaction. Cena mentions the reaction, and says he isn’t perfect. He then says that if Batista wants to settle the consequences of what happened at the end of Raw last week, they should do it like men, right now. Batista comes out to a good pop from the Crowd, and says that he knows it was a mistake. He goes on to say that he should get the Title shot at Summerslam. John Cena argues the case, and says that he’s not sure Batista should have a third title shot. Batista says neither Punk nor Cena can beat him one on one. Cena then challenges Batista to a match that they are saying should ‘headline Wrestlemania’. Shane McMahon comes out and says that he and Stephanie have chosen a new GM for Raw, who will be announced later in the show. Shane says that the new GM has already made two matches for the night, the first being CM Punk against the hottest free agent in the WWE. The second a tag team match, JBL and Kane against Cena and Batista. I enjoyed the opening segment, that did a good job of setting up two matches for the show, and also set us all wondering as to who the new GM was going to be.

• The first match of the night is Kelly Kelly and D-lo Brown
against Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix. Before the match starts, a video is shown of Santino and Beth agreeing that their relationship is strictly business, and that the kiss meant ‘nothing’. Not that anyone believed that, but the interplay between the two was funny. The match itself was short but decent, with Santino getting the rollup on Kelly Kelly. They did a funny spot in the match where Santino couldn’t lift D-lo, but Beth could. The crowd was pretty into the match, as Santino is hilarious in his role. After the match, we get another awkward moment with Santino and Beth in the ring, ending with Beth planting a rather aggressive lip-lock on Santino. So far this storyline has entertained me, and seems to be entertaining the crowd, so I hope they keep it going for a while. Beth has impressed me in recent weeks, showing her versatility, proving that she’s not only good in the ring, but also in the interplay between her and Santino. Good stuff.

• After commercial, Shane is in his office looking at a Picture of Vince. JBL walks in and says that Vince was and is a great man. Shane asks what JBL wants, and JBL says that he should be the one to face CM Punk at Summerslam. Shane says he will have to take it up with the new GM. Shane then gets a phone call from the new GM, and says something about changes before walking off, leaving JBL confused. This was a decent segment that put over the new GM, further building up the announcement later in the night.

• Next we have Hacksaw Jim Duggan coming down to the ring, followed by Jerry Lawler, and my hopes dropped. They couldn’t possibly be putting these guys in a Tag Team Titles match…could they? Yup, they could, and did. I groaned and got ready to turn the show off (before I remembered I had this review to do!), but then we were saved by a referee, who ran down to the ring with a note. Lilian read it out, and announced that Lawler would instead be teaming with…Michael Cole! Here, the only reason why I watched this match was because I was hoping to God that they wouldn’t have King and Cole defeat Rhodes and DiBiase. Thank the Lord that they didn’t. Rhodes and DiBiase won the match when Rhodes clothesline Michael Cole for the victory. After the match, Cole sold the clothesline as Raw goes to a commercial. Both the Crowd and I (and I’m sure everyone else) were bored by the whole segment, but by the end of the night, I guess it made sense. Creative definitely needs to put Cody and Ted in a worthwhile and meaningful feud if they are ever going to get these guys over. Hopefully they are grooming Cryme Tyme for a feud within the next few weeks, because I could see some good matches between the four of them.

• Back from Commercial and Mike Adamle is sitting where Michael Cole sits in commentary. Lawler rejoins him, and says the new GM obviously likes to play games. Adamle says that he got a call telling him to be in DC for the show tonight. The attention turns to the ring, where Jamie Noble is standing with Layla. Noble compares himself to Obama and McCain, and says the new GM needs to know who he is. Noble says that he challenged Kofi Kingston to a match tonight, because Noble thinks he should be the future IC Champion. Kofi comes out to the ring to a good reaction from the crowd, and beats Noble in pretty much a squash match. There was nothing wrong with the segment, as both of these guys are good in the ring, and it gives some importance to the IC title, with guys competing for, and wanting it. I just wish they had given Noble some more offense. I know that isn’t the direction they are pushing his character at the moment, but he and Kofi could have has a real good match last night. Other than that, good segment.

• Back from another commercial, and JBL is at ringside to watch the match between CM Punk and his mystery opponent. The mystery opponent turns out to be William Regal, and Regal and Punk have a good, stiff match. I like Regal’s in ring work, as it always strikes me to be some of the most realistic stuff we see in the WWE. Punk gets the win with the GTS after Regal dominated most of the match. Regal isn’t really hurt by the loss, and should probably go into the IC title Division to feud with Kingston, Burchill and Jamie Noble...apparently. After the match JBL gets into the ring to face-off with Punk. Kane’s pyro hits and the Big Red Machine walks down to the ring with his brown Bag. Kane hits JBL, then is kicked by Punk, who is then laid out by JBL. Kane and JBL then face-off, before leaving the ring, leaving our World Champion laid out at ringside. A bit of a peculiar and pointless ending to the match, that knocks the credibility of our already underdog World Champion.

• Next we have the last ever Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho and Lance Cade. Chris Jericho once again cuts a fantastic promo, saying the highlight reel was done purely to please the fans. But he’s grown up and matured, and that’s why he doesn’t need it anymore. Everything that Jericho said made complete sense, which is why I think I have been enjoying the promos so much. Jericho is without a doubt the best heel on Raw and maybe in the whole WWE at the moment. If he keeps this up, he could be a great World Champion in the next few months. I think anyone would find it hard to disagree with that right now.

• JR comes down to the ring to join Adamle and Lawler at ringside, saying he too got a call telling him to be at Raw that night. Next, Mickie James and Jillian had an okay match, with Mickie obviously getting the victory. After the match, Mickie celebrates with her father at ringside, but is attacked by Katie Lea Birchill. After the attack, Katie Lea walks up the ramp to join her brother Paul. Katie Lea says that both she and her brother would be taking the Women’s and Intercontinental Titles soon, and that the new GM should be paying attention to them. I liked the post-match segment, as I was glad they hadn’t forgotten about the feuds these guys had been involved in. Katie Lea is definitely the best, and really only option to feud with Mickie for the title and the two of them should continue to have some decent to good battles for the title. The Burchills are certainly gaining a reputation for attacking people after matches, aren’t they?

• Another segment is done to build up the announcement of the new GM, this time with Todd Grisham asking Shane McMahon if he could tell him who the new GM was. Shane says all in good time, and Todd leaves happy. From the moment of the announcement, I was hoping we’d be hearing some ‘Wooooos’ later in the night, but after the Lawler and Cole tag match, I knew that the GM was going to be heel. But I couldn’t work out who the heck it was going to be? I guess I wasn’t complaining much at this point, because the excitement surrounding the announcement made the show that much more watchable, which is always a good thing.

• Before the Main Event, Cryme Tyme are backstage with Cena, asking him if he needs them to be at ringside with him for the match tonight, because he can’t trust Batista. Batista walks up and Cryme Tyme leave. Batista and Cena have a face-off, with Batista saying that they can’t trust each other, so the best thing Cena can do, is stay out of Batista’s way. Cena says Batista took the words right out of his mouth, as we head to commercial before the match. A good little pre-match build up segment here.

• Next is the main event, which I enjoyed right up until the finish. That is when things started to go downhill. Kane taking the pinfall was something I really didn’t understand. How are WWE expecting people to care about this ‘Is he Dead or Alive’ storyline, if Kane continues to be treated like a filler and an afterthought. If I wasn’t such a big Kane fan, I doubt I would give two sh*ts as to whether ‘he’ is ‘Dead or Alive’ or as to what is in the Brown Bag, which is becoming more of a prop like JBL’s Cowboy hat, than a mysterious item that actually contains something important. At the start I was excited about this angle, and in the first week they did a good job of making Kane go crazy, but the last couple of weeks, they don’t seem to be paying too much attention to the angle, and giving it a backseat to the Batista/Cena confrontations. Speaking of those, we get another one at the end of the match. Shane McMahon comes out and says that the new General Manager is Mike ‘What the Hell am I even doing in WWE anyway?!’ Adamle! The crowd boos, not because he is some kind of heel, but because of how bad he sucks. Adamle announces that at Summerslam, it’s going to be Cena against Batista, in one of the most Anti-Climax announcements of all time. Cena and Batista look as pissed of as the rest of the crowd and everyone else watching at home. Usually an announcement like that would make the crowd go crazy, but because of how lame the appointment of Adamle as GM was, no one was really interested in what he had to say. As I said at the start, a real Anti-Climax to the end of the show, putting a guy in charge of the flagship broadcast, who has about as much personality as Charlie Hass. In fact, I think I’d prefer old Charlie as GM, that’s how bad Adamle is.