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By Chris Newth, PWTorch.com Specialist Contributor

WWE Monday Night Raw
September 10, 2007
Upcoming PPV: Unforgiven (6 days away as of airdate)

RAW STORYLINES AND FEUDS

Welcome to the fifth edition of Raw Storylines and Feuds.

For those wondering about the Intrigue Level system that I employ, you can refer to the numbers as follows:

10 (excellent), 9 (great), 8-6 (very good, good, pretty good), 5 (decent; has its good and bad qualities), 4-3 (needs work, poor), 2 (bad), 1 (terrible)

WWE Champion JOHN CENA vs. RANDY ORTON (8 weeks)

The heated rivalry between the WWE Champion and the Legend Killer has been stellar for the last few weeks. The feud has grown significantly since its inception two months ago. It began in an arbitrary fashion as Jonathan Coachman chose Orton to be the Number One Contender. Tensions have since grown, and the feud reached a high point with Orton's attack on Cena's father.

Once the active progression had piqued, Cena adopted a much more emotional disposition. For the last two weeks, WWE has adeptly structured a strong, intriguing, and engaging feud for its Unforgiven main eventers. Last week's events were particularly well-orchestrated with Orton's absence and Cena's attack on William Regal.

The only unconstructive feature in this week's developments was how WWE handled the Regal situation. They blew it off as GM heel bias. J.R. said that "William Regal protected Randy Orton from John Cena last week." "That's right. And General Manager William Regal paid the price," Lawler added. Uh, what ever happened to Cena's actions being seen as an overreaction? What ever happened to the announcers questioning what Cena did and wondering if his career was going to be in serious jeopardy because of it? Oh, so now because Regal's actions were interpreted as heel tactics, it's okay.

Well, I don't think you can call Regal's actions heelish. In last week's column, I described how Regal was depicted as a neutral authority figure. He thought that Jeff Hardy's Intercontinental Title win was "wonderful." His decision to ban Orton from the building was justified; he didn't want Cena and Orton to tear each other apart. To protect each of their safety, he used forced separation by giving Orton the night off.

Furthermore, his decision to give Orton a rematch for the WWE Championship was logical, and I'd expect any GM, whether face or heel, to assign that match. I could picture GM Teddy Long making the same exact decision (to give the fans a great match and to give Cena a chance to legally attack Orton) with no problem at all. But because Regal was wrongly pictured as a clear heel, the beating he took was deserved? There seemed to be a disparity here. I’m not questioning Cena's actions, per se. In fact, I enjoyed the idea that Cena attacked a neutral figure because of his frustration and because he hated the notion of someone giving Orton what he wanted.

Of course, the most important part of Cena's appearance on this week's Raw was his impassionate speech to Mr. McMahon backstage. Cena came through again, looking legitimately distressed. The words themselves were strong, and he nailed it with smaller details, namely the voice inflection. Here's a guy trying to avenge an attack on his family. The only thing more powerful than this approach is Randy Orton's disgustingly arrogant reaction to it all.

The emotional element involved in the WWE Title match will be interesting. People can be overwhelmed with emotion, and John Cena is certainly in that state-of-mind. His actions during the match should say a lot about his current emotional condition. Hopefully Cena can transfer this narrative seamlessly into an in-ring match at Unforgiven.

I've already covered multiple events within this feud for weeks. Now we've reached the week before a pay-per-view, and specifically speaking, there wasn't any great development here. There was undoubtedly sustenance, however. It certainly didn't die down this week, despite the necessity of keeping Cena and Orton separated, literally.

Overall, this has been a great feud. The characters are strong, the emotion is intense, and the storyline is sound. All the little elements are working well concertedly to bring this thing to a culmination at Unforgiven on Sunday.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 10 [same as last week]

Previous Feuds
John Cena: Bobby Lashley
Randy Orton: Dusty Rhodes & Cody Rhodes

MR. McMAHON vs. HORNSWOGGLE (1 week)

The results are in, and Mr. McMahon's long-lost son is…Hornswoggle? WWE's decision to use the Leprechaun as McMahon's Irish son has its good and bad qualities.

On the negative side of things, Mr. McMahon might find it difficult to begin an elaborate feud against or with his son. What's he going to do, align himself with Jamie Noble? Please try again. The other downside to this revelation is that it almost felt like a copout by WWE. People were expecting something big, but they ended up getting…well, someone small.

On the positive side of things, this angle now can open up a fresh new spin on Mr. McMahon's character as he battles both Hornswoggle and his own ego while dealing with the new information. The idea that McMahon expected someone like Mr. Kennedy, The Great Khali, or JBL to turn out as his son can really add to the irony that "reality" brought. Another small positive was the series of riddles that led up to the reveal because they ultimately matched Hornswoggle's character well.

Also, as Wade Keller mentioned, Hornswoggle was a good choice for the long-run. Unless WWE decided to later claim that the wrestler's DNA didn't match perfectly, Hornswoggle was the best option. He's not the mainstay of the company; he's a comedy figure. The McMahon child would be a permanent gimmick. It's analogous to the Eugene character. So, there can be an eventual stigma to the gimmick over time. Someone like Mr. Kennedy might still be remembered for being a McMahon years from now when it's probably better that he isn't remembered for it.

In terms of the placement of the segment, it didn't matter too much. It can be angering at times when a main event match is started in the last five minutes of the show, because it telegraphs the ending for you. When it happens, you know that the match is going to be extremely short and probably resulting in an interference or disqualification. The same mindset should apply for this episode of Raw. The audience was told that the big announcement was going to be made this week as to whom Mr. McMahon's "bastard son" is.

In our minds, we expected this to be big; after all, it's been building for weeks. Making that the last segment seems, at least on the surface, to be the correct booking decision. The result of the reveal is irrelevant; the segment was going to be newsworthy. I'd rather have that segment to close the show since it was supposed to be the biggest deal on this week's Raw than to have it placed earlier in the show simply because Creative knew that Hornswoggle was going to be the named son.

As far as criticism for not enough PPV hype is concerned, that's not my concern. As a viewer, I shouldn't be thinking about the business side of things. I'm just tuning in to be entertained. In fact, the actual percentage of WWE viewers that purchase a PPV is relatively small. Sometimes shows that overly hype PPVs can be crowded and disorganized (See: TNA). But WWE knew that they wanted to keep Orton and Cena relatively separated until Unforgiven, so that gave even more excuse to close the show with McMahon.

As for how things go from here, only time will tell. McMahon now has a little problem, and that issue raises some big questions. Will McMahon spend more of his time on Smackdown now? Will Hornswoggle appear on both programs to taunt his father? How will McMahon handle the situation? What will his family think of the latest developments? Although it may have seemed to fizzle here, the McMahon storyline can still provide some entertainment value. It all depends on how WWE structures events from next week forward.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 6

TRIPLE H vs. CARLITO (3 weeks)

Nobody was really sure how long Triple H's spat with Carlito would last, but it seems that WWE is behind it at least until Unforgiven. The feud so far has been moderately entertaining, although it feels as if Carlito is just "there." It began with Mr. McMahon's appearance on Carlito's Cabana, where Triple H started to annoy the Chairman. The following week, McMahon put Carlito and Umaga in a Handicap Match against The Game, which resulted in the destruction of Umaga via sledgehammer.

This week, Carlito told Todd Grisham that he doesn't fear Triple H because he needed to use a weapon to take out the Samoan Bulldozer. That was a good, logical reaction; it's something I even mentioned in last week's Raw Storylines and Feuds. Then things took an illogical turn, as Carlito makes a stupid mistake by naming Shelton Benjamin as Triple H's opponent on Raw. If the GM allowed Carlito to choose anyone to face Triple H, why wouldn't he choose someone who has the ability to possibly take The Game out? Why Shelton Benjamin?

This feud is just a formality. Triple H needs to be in a match at Unforgiven, and since his involvement in the McMahon angle doesn't provide him with an opponent, Carlito has been chosen, almost by literal proximity, to do the job. The stipulation that Coach added to their PPV match—where Carlito cannot be disqualified while Triple H can be—doesn't elevate the feud much. Everybody knows that Triple H can beat Carlito with or without weapons.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 5

Previous Feuds
Triple H: King Booker
Carlito: Umaga

World Hvt. Champion THE GREAT KHALI vs. BATISTA vs. REY MYSTERIO

Trying to avoid this one couldn't really be done because of its surprising appearance on the Raw brand.

Through a business standpoint, WWE made a great decision to bring Smackdown's main event wrestlers (and one of the main events at Unforgiven) to their flagship broadcast. In a way it elevated Raw by having more heavyweight main eventers at the top of the card present to displace the lack of actual contact between Cena and Orton. It also gave their feud—or at least two-thirds of it since Mysterio was absent—greater weight by allowing it to appear on two separate WWE television shows.

Even the excuse for featuring Batista and The Great Khali was good. Everyone from all brands was supposed to attend that Raw for the big McMahon son reveal. So everything seemed fluent in that regard.

The actual events that transpired, however, were less than stellar. First, The Great Khali destroys Jeff Hardy, who is one of the handful of people in WWE that get a real superstar reaction from the crowd. I can understand the importance of pushing Khali as your unstoppable champion, but have someone other than your Intercontinental Champion, especially when it's Jeff Hardy, do the job.

Then Batista made his surprising appearance to give the obligatory spear to the Punjabi Nightmare, which led to the subsequent stare-down to conclude the segment. So, the actual interaction between two of the three participants in the World Heavyweight Championship match at Unforgiven lacked excitement. On the bright side, it gave WWE a chance to have J.R. and Lawler plug the Batista-Khali match on this week's Smackdown. So, there was justification for this otherwise dull segment.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 6.5 [same as on Smackdown]

Previous Feuds
The Great Khali: Batista and Kane
Batista: Edge

PAUL LONDON & BRIAN KENDRICK vs. World Tag Team Champions LANCE CADE & TREVOR MURDOCH (2 weeks)

There seems to have been some corrections within this feud since last week. One week ago, I criticized the idea that Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch could readopt their good-sportsmen gimmick again after deliberately breaking it when winning the World Tag Team Titles from the Hardys. It didn't make sense that they could pull it off again against London and Kendrick. Nobody could seriously fall for the same trick twice.

This week, a different approach was taken, and it was successful. Instead of having Cade and Murdoch play babyfaces, they had London and Kendrick play heels (in a sense). When J.R. mentioned that London and Kendrick outsmarted the Tag Team Champions, Lawler corrected him by saying that they out-cheated them.

What a great difference, and a simple switch on basically the mirror-image version of the same storyline. Unlike last week, Cade and Murdoch didn't pretend to be good-sportsmen. In fact, Murdoch jumped onto the ring apron to try to push London. It was clear evidence that the Tag Team Champions are heels. During that distraction, Kendrick was able to hit Cade with his Sliced Bread #2 to give London the tainted win.

This new phase has just begun, so let's see what happens next week (assuming these two teams still feud after Unforgiven) before judging it. In the meantime, this version of events is so much better than the last-attempted one.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 5.5 [up 1.5 from last week]

Previous Feuds
London and Kendrick: no notable feuds since being drafted from Smackdown
Cade & Murdoch: The Hardys

Women’s Champion CANDICE MICHELLE vs. BETH PHOENIX (3 weeks)

Beth Phoenix continued to wreak havoc this week on Raw despite the lack of participation in an actual match. The storyline here seems slightly predictable, having seen the bully-attacks-a-weaker-victim angle innumerable times in wrestling, but there is some value in it.

The curiosity involved in the program between Candice and Phoenix requires that the two avoid each other as much as possible. I was critical of this method in its inception because of the idea that they wouldn't have an official in-ring altercation in the few weeks preceding the PPV at which Candice defends her championship. Furthermore, Candice's reputation as a champion hasn't been nearly established enough to make her credible for a challenger like Phoenix, who has been consistently booked like a monster. However, the benefits of this strategy may outweigh the downsides.

With the champion not wrestling, other divas are given the chance to compete and retain their own identities. Mickie James and Jillian Hall are almost beginning to develop their own mini-feud as they throw us squash matches and after-match conflicts between Beth and feeder divas. This week, the rivalry reached a new level when Beth quickly dropped Candice with a powerful Glamazonian Stalling Fishermen's Suplex.

The storyline is quite clichéd and simple: Phoenix, a relatively new diva to the Raw roster, enters with a purpose—to destroy the divas and sit atop the women's division with the WWE Women's Championship around her waist. It's also important to note this vicious female monster-esque character that is Beth Phoenix. She's all about herself. Although she has teamed with Melina in the past, she's severed ties with all divas, both babyface and heel. Great. Throwing Jillian Hall out of the ring was important in showing that she truly is friendly to nobody.

This thing can basically go two ways come Unforgiven, and it will all depend on how WWE feels about Candice Michelle. Expect a short, lucky win for Candice (to continue a more fulfilling feud after their first official match) or a quick, destructive win by Phoenix on Sunday (to really catapult Phoenix to the top and make her look unstoppable).

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 4.5 [up 1 from last week]

Previous Feuds
Candice Michelle: Melina
Beth Phoenix: n/a

SANTINO MARELLA (w/ Maria) vs. RON SIMMONS (6 weeks w/ 1 week hiatus)

Of course, Santino has been battling two people as of late. His conflict with The Sandman, although pretty new, has already dissolved since Raw Superstar and ECW Original The Sandman has been released by WWE.

Therefore, interpreting that particular feud and forming an analysis of it is ultimately pointless. Unfortunately, there was no real resolution to Santino's quarrel with the Cane Wielder. At least he can get back to where more of the narrative importance lies—the rivalry with Ron Simmons.

It's understandable to assume that there is no true relevance in the Santino-Simmons feud. After all, Simmons is a non-wrestler. But let's think about the implications of this entertaining conflict (and also not forget that Santino entered this feud because his injury prevented him from actually wrestling at the time). Santino's character has been reinvigorated since his feud with Simmons began. The feud has been consistently intriguing already, despite the lack of in-ring backing. Furthermore, the story being told with Santino's jealousy and Maria's ambiguous relationship with Ron Simmons has been useful for all three characters. The most important aspect is the juxtaposition of simplicity with the lack thereof.

Everyone understands the concept of Santino's affection for Maria and how he dislikes Maria's friendship with Simmons. On the other hand, love is so abstract and unpredictable. When a story involves love, there's always going to be questions as to how people act, because nobody reacts the same exact way in those situations. Love is inherently confusing, and it is this confusion that creates the layers of complexity that dispense both interesting characters and storylines.

This week, despite the match with Sandman (and the always-entertaining promo), Santino was able to advance the plot by physically attacking Simmons for the first time since their feud had begun. WWE has left us with the most popular and important question in episodic storytelling: what happens next?

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 7 [same as last week]

Previous Feuds
Santino Marella: Umaga
Ron Simmons: n/a

FEUD CONCLUSIONS

(1) Santino Marella vs. The Sandman
(2) Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga
(3) Mr. McMahon Junior Mystery Solved (hint: it's Hornswoggle)

POTENTIAL FEUDS

(1) Triple H vs. Mr. McMahon?

FEUDS NOT FEATURED THIS WEEK

(1) Cody Rhodes vs. Daivari

Thanks for reading, everyone. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to email me. I appreciate all the feedback I receive: newthtorch@hotmail.com.

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