By Lee Stevens, Torch specialist

Thank you for joining me as put Raw "Under The Microscope." This is not a complete recap of the show. This is simply a closer look at what happened during the broadcast.

Just turn left at ArgenTNA

The recap of Randy Orton's last few weeks brought us Michael Cole's insistence that Orton punted Triple H "into oblivion." It reminded me of the classic line from Mike Tyson who was asked about his declining career and how his story would end. The former champ responded "I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian." I'm certainly not going to correct him.

Bon Jour

The sign of the night goes to the French-Canadian supporting fan who hoped that WWE would "Bring Back La Resistance." The sign didn't get into any specific requests so we can't be sure if the person wants Rene Dupree, Sylvain Grenier, Rob Conway, or any particular combination of the three. Although the odds of any of the men returning to WWE probably are small, two of the wrestlers are still quite close - Grenier and Conway won the NCW Tag Team Titles last year.

Then again, I shouldn't assume the fan was referring to wrestling. In the South Park movie "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut," Kyle, Stan, and Cartman form La Resistance to take on Canada after their favorite characters Terrance and Phillip are threatened with execution.

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The award for subtlety goes to Shane McMahon who chose to dress for his match against Randy Orton by advertising his match against Randy Orton. "McMahon vs. Orton on Raw" was prominently displayed on the back of his jersey for both the opening and closing matches of the evening. He wasn't the only performer to forward a storyline with his clothing as The Miz came out to challenge Cena and featured a black arm guard which had Miz-1 Cena-0 written on it. Michael Cole's sport coat, which has the word "vintage" on it, was at the cleaners.

Barrel of laughs

Jerry Lawler brought us back from commercial with a stunning shot of Niagara Falls and the words "Niagara Falls, slowly I turned..." before continuing with another thought. Score ten points if you caught this veiled reference to an old vaudeville sketch, popularized by the Three Stooges. During the skit, two men meet and one becomes surprisingly agitated by the mention of the falls, reminding him of an apparently horrible experience. He recounts the event by saying "Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch..." and confronts the stranger as if he is the cause of the initial incident. In some instances, there will be a physical confrontation which ends only after the victims screams bring the other man back to reality. It also can involve a third person who accidentally mentions the landmark prompting another "slowly I turned..."

Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and Milton Berle all performed versions of the bit. In more modern times, Drew Carey will reference the joke on The Price is Right anytime someone says that they are from Rancho Cucamonga.

As for Lawler's joke that he went over the falls in a barrel the night before, several people have survived the plunge, but it is illegal to do so on both the U.S. and Canadian side of the falls and the person inside the barrel is subject to a fine.

It's not easy being green

I enjoyed William Regal's return to WWE television and his work from the broadcast table. The line of the night goes to his reference to The Miz as "Kermit the Frog without the talent." Although Kermit never actually stepped into the ring, he did appear in a very early version of what would become "The Muppet Show" in an episode entitled "Sex and Violence." During that show, Kermit was in the audience of a wrestling match. At the time, the main character was a Muppet named Nigel who eventually went on to be the conductor of the Muppet Show band.

Dedicated fans of the show will remember a particular episode when Scooter's uncle offered to help Kermit meet payroll if he puts some lady wrestling on the show. In a different episode, Gonzo wrestled a brick blindfolded. He lost.

Do you play requests?

For the record, Jillian was attempting to sing Britney Spears' song "If U Seek Amy," while Festus graced us with his rendition of "Tomorrow" from the musical "Annie." It's not the first time an unlikely crooner stepped up in a WWE ring. Last year at this time, Lance Murdoch and Garrison Cade were in the middle of a tag team break-up, mostly because Murdoch chose to celebrate success or ease the sting of failure by singing, including the song "Friends in Low Places" from Garth Brooks.

Time for dinner!

Our random celebrity of the week winner goes to Jared from Subway who was the guest ring announcer for the Divas match. Not surprisingly, the segment was sponsored by Subway, so it made a little more sense, but I can only imagine if the Sales Department had gone in a different direction. If McDonald's had closed the deal, we could have had that singing fish with "Give me back that filet o' fish, give me that fish" or Sir Mix A-lot insisting that he likes "Square butts and I cannot lie."

I think it would have been a win/win situation either way.

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV

I'm not going to jump on the Shane McMahon bashing bandwagon. I just spent the last few minutes humming "Baby Got Back" and thinking of SpongeBob, so I certainly make no claims at being a serious journalist. With that disclaimer out of the way, I still couldn't help noticing small details that could cut into the credibility of the final 15 minutes. Michael Cole insisted that Shane McMahon "doesn't do this everyday" and Lawler added that "He doesn't even consider himself a wrestler." Depending on your side of the argument this could either be a huge positive or the ultimate negative.

If you have enjoyed the underdog McMahon fighting for the pride of his family, then being reminded that this isn't his full-time job adds to the "against all odds" joy of seeing him succeed, which would naturally lead to your outrage at how the attack ended. I grew up watching wrestling at a time when a select few could handle a one-on-three attack.

Andre the Giant and Haystacks Calhoun come to mind. As we progressed, Big John Studd and Hulk Hogan were added to the list. You were either really, really big or the champ if you were going to take apart three other professionals. In this case, the announcers were reminding us that not only was McMahon handling the current title holder and the former tag champs, he doesn't even do this for a living. If he isn't doing this long-term, how are those comments helping WWE long-term?

Again, this is not a bashing for the sake of bashing. It's a small detail, but that's what we do here. We look at the small stuff. Plus, we like singing fish.

Lee Stevens examines Smackdown and Raw with "Under The Microscope." You can leave comments below or e-mail him at GLStevens.Torch@gmail.com

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