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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.

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