TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
Guest Editorials
EDITORIAL: Why Raw helped the characters of Regal, Kennedy, and Orton, but fell just short for ECW wrestlers May 6, 2008 - 1:36:22 PM
Editor's Note: At PWTorch.com we strive for our content whenever possible and practical to be original and unique (i .e. not published on other sites), therefore Guest Editorials submitted to PWTorch. com should be submitted only to PWTorch. com. If you submit a Guest Editorial for consideration, please state at the top of your editorial that you submitted it only to PWTorch. com. For more details on submitting Guest Editorials, check out a detailed submissions guide following today's Guest Editorial below.
GUEST EDITORIAL
By Naveed Islam
PWTorch.com Reader>
Monday Night Raw was by no means a stellar show, but it wasn't an altogether horrible show, either. The evening's highlight has to be the great character development of William Regal. When Regal became "King of the Ring" a few weeks ago, it was unclear what his new role within WWE would be. Would KOTR just be a niche under his belt and will things go back to business as usual after the tournament, or would we see WWE use this opportunity to make something out of Regal? Thankfully, as the past two weeks have shown, it turned out to be the latter.
Vince McMahon's appearance could have gone worse, say perhaps, Mr. McMahon attempting to prove he's a more powerful entity than Regal. But WWE got it just right, and gave McMahon a short promo at the start of the show to endorse Regal as King and GM. Regal's actions throughout the night served as proof to the fans of Regal's power and gave them more reason to despise him as King and General Manager.
Another wrestler who came out looking more like a star after Raw this past Monday Night was Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy's tenure in WWE has seen him go through many ups and downs in terms of a decent push. The problem with Kennedy's run as a heel was that it wasn't consistent. He has had big feuds with stars such as Batista, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and even Ric Flair, but he goes off the radar once those feuds conclude. WWE never followed up on them. Time will tell whether Kennedy's feud with Regal will have a lasting effect on the way fans perceive Kennedy but, so far it's been good.
The reason why Kennedy is working so well as a face right now is because his turn was seamless. He stuck to his character in his first promo back from hiatus, talking about how he could have won KOTR if he was in it, and he carried that edge with him into next week. The success of this feud depends not only on building Regal as a credible heel, but also on how they push Kennedy.
Both men were elevated in the opening segment, not merely because of how important this storyline has quickly become to Raw, but also because of Triple H. Regardless of how much his critics will bash him, Hunter is a main eventer, a Star, and currently WWE Champion. His involvement in the Regal-Kennedy storyline will help elevate both men. That being said, the main event squash of ECW seemed unnecessary. ECW did win at the end, but nothing after the pinfall made any sense.
For starters, Knox, Miz, and Morrison attack The Game and then C.M. Punk and Tommy Dreamer help Hunter by attacking the heels. But then, the ECW heels and faces are back to being allies and are trying to take out The Game. It wasn't surprising that the match had Kennedy taking most of the bumps with Hunter only being there for the hot tags, but these final moments made no sense at all. It would have made more sense to have Punk and Dreamer help Hunter fend off the other ECW heels, since they had been clearly playing up some of the top feuds on the show (Kane vs. Chavo, Benjamin vs. Kingston) during the match. So it would have made sense to keep those lines drawn between the ECW stars even after the match was over.
Finally, Randy Orton's interruption at the end made sense. It drew suspicion to Regal's actions earlier in the night: Did he turn off the lights during Orton's match to help the former Champion? Punk was in control just before it went dark, so it would make sense that Regal was actually looking over Orton's shoulder this whole time. Using the lights to his advantage was a clever way to get the jump on Triple H. Had Punk and Dreamer helped Hunter fight Knox, Miz, and Morrison prior to the attack, this final segment would have come off better. As Punk and Dreamer taunt the fleeing heels, the lights go off in the building.
Once the lights are back on, Orton hits the RKO and flees the scene, as Dreamer and Punk check on the fallen Triple H. Orton, who is running through the crowd, grins as Raw comes to a close. This makes the RKO come off almost like an assassination and reminds fans that Orton can strike anyone at anytime with this move, even if they're not alone. Also, it allows Dreamer and Punk to come off as big deals to be, even in such a small way, a part of the big things happening on Monday Nights.
The rest of Raw was definitely passable, but these two segments bookending the show were certainly important to developing superstars, and had they been tweaked a little, could have even given ECW a rub before their big show.
You are invited to submit a "Torch Guest Editorial" for possible publishing on this site in future days. For submission guidelines and the current email, click here.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?