Opening Segment: Raw got off to a pretty good start. It wasn’t great, and it went on too long, but it was still entertaining. Vince McMahon was good in his role. The tease of various possible sons was as well. It was nice to hear the great pop for Jeff Hardy (too bad they spoiled it later). Hardy has a poor reputation on the mic but was pretty good here. John Bradshaw Layfield was entertaining as always. The segment also set up the anticipation for the ultimate reveal at the end of the show. While there were problems with it, it had enough entertainment value to get a Hit.
End of London vs. Cade: While the match itself was too short to get a Hit, it was good while it lasted and had a very good ending. I have enjoyed the times that they have played up the fact that Cade & Murdoch present themselves as being fair and not cheating. It was great during their program a few months back with the Hardys. Unfortunately, WWE went away from it during their brief feud with Cryme Tyme. I was glad to see it back last week, and then they put a nice twist on it this week with Brian Kendrick cheating to help Paul London pick up the win on Lance Cade. Unfortunately, it would have been a better ending if they had played up that side of Cade & Murdoch’s persona a lot more lately.
Orton and Cena: The highlight of the night was the promo from Randy Orton, followed by the “surprise” attack by John Cena. Both are showing more intensity than usual which is good. Orton’s promo was very good. Cena was great. It was also very good to see the security guards actually able to hold Cena back for the most part. Wrestling fans have seen too many pull apart brawls over the years where five or six professional wrestlers are not able to hold back one wrestler from attacking another. Here it was much more believable than what typically happens, as the security guards did keep Cena off of Orton. And then when you thought the segment was over, it got even better when Cena had his face-off with McMahon. His impassioned statement to McMahon was a great way to end the final hype for his match against Orton at Unforgiven. It is too bad it was so early in the show (more later).
Santino Marella: While not as funny as in recent weeks, Santino was still good. He had some funny lines, and had a laugh out loud moment when he broke the Singapore cane over his knee. His match with Sandman was short and sloppy, but his attempts to use the cane was good. He showed more intensity in his backstage attack on Ron Simmons which is good. He is a very funny character and has played his part well. But, it is good for him to get more of an edge and just having him be a total comedy act is likely a mistake. This week he had a good balance between a comedy act and a more serious act, which is good.
Closing Segment: So we come to the final segment, and the ultimate reveal of the identity of Vince McMahon’s son. I will start with the segment itself and move on to the reveal. I enjoyed the fact that they slowly whittled down the roster. The various clues that were given by the lawyer were fun and McMahon’s reactions to the superstars getting eliminated was too. It was great to see them tease that Triple H is the son. It was also great that he wasn’t really the son. Now what about the reveal of Hornswoggle? I have mixed feelings here. I have been rooting all along for a comedy figure (my hope was Sandman) who after weeks of being a thorn in Vince’s side, would be revealed as not Vince’s son, as the rest of the McMahons played an elaborate prank on Vince to get back at him for faking his own death. That is still a possibility. I have to admit to laughing at Hornswoggle’s antics in the ring with Vince, particularly hugging his leg. They had to do something other than Mr. Kennedy since he got suspended. They had to name the son. Who else was it going to be? Whoever was named was going to be stuck being Vince’s son forever. So it makes sense that they wouldn’t put that onto a legit wrestler last minute. Plus it gave Jerry Lawler a chance to get in the line of the year when he said that Hornswoggle really is a “little bastard.” The problem with a comedy reveal is that it happened at the end of the last show before the PPV when they should have been hyping the event (more later).
RAW MISSES
Treatment of Jeff Hardy: After getting a great win over Umaga to capture the Intercontinental Championship last week, and after having him participate in the enjoyable opening segment this week, how did WWE follow up on his great reactions? By having him utterly destroyed by The Great Khali later in the show! How disappointing. Hardy gets better reactions that almost everyone on the roster (including Champion John Cena). In fact, other than Triple H (and he may be included as well) does anyone get better cheers on Raw? I know that they want to show Khali as unstoppable, but why does that have to be at the expense of Hardy?
In Ring Action: The wrestling action on Raw has been poor as of late and this was no exception. Really, the matches weren’t bad, but they weren’t good, and they were all very short. I discussed above how I liked the end of London vs. Cade, but that the match was too short. Triple H vs Shelton Benjamin was a decent length at 8 minutes, but it was interrupted by a commercial break and wasn’t anything special. It had a few nice spots, but nothing to get excited about. Mickie James vs. Jillian Hall was a decent match, but very short. Santino vs. Sandman was short and sloppy. Khali vs. Hardy was short and left a bad taste in my mouth. The show opened and closed with long talking segments. There were several non-wrestling segments throughout the show. They could have easily cut some of that out and presented more action.
PPV Push: The other major problem with Raw was the lack of hype for Unforgiven. In reality, the hype was actually pretty good, but the placement of it was poor. They hyped the Tag Team Championship match in the second segment. They hyped Carlito vs. Triple H and Orton vs Cena fairly early in the show as well. In fact, the latest hype in the show for a PPV match was for the Smackdown Main Event of Khali vs. Batista vs. Mysterio, which they still have two hours on Friday to hype. They needed Orton vs. Cena to be the focus of the show. The Horsnwoggle reveal should have come earlier. The Khali vs. Hardy match should have been the mid point of the show. Then have the Triple H vs. Benjamin match as the “Main Event.” And the end of the show should have been Orton and Cena’s confrontation.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
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