By Lee Stevens, Torch specialist

Thank you for joining me as we put Raw "Under The Microscope." If you are a new reader, this is not a complete recap of the show. Instead, we take a closer, sometimes offbeat, look at Monday's broadcast.

Happy Father's Day

Although Cody Rhodes didn't come out of his cage match looking very strong, I appreciated him not shying away from Batista at the start of the show. His confidence apparently came from his family tree. "My father was in some of the greatest cage matches of all time," reasoned Rhodes.

Dusty was in a cage more than a pet canary during his days in the NWA, perhaps most frequently at the Great American Bash with matches against Tully Blanchard, the Midnight Express, and the classic/vintage War Games battles. He also won his third NWA Championship in a cage against some young man named Ric Flair. I hope Mr. Flair is relaxing and enjoying his retirement.

No, C.M., he's not asking for you

Even casual fans recognize that a Ric Flair interview will be littered with Whooo's, but apparently Flair picked up another favorite word while he was away. If you're scoring at home (and I certainly hope that you are), he said "punk" 15 times, "whoo" clocked in at 10, and "grow a set" appropriately came in at a pair of references.

Even the voices in your head didn't quite understand

Randy Orton attempted to intimidate Flair and closed with the line, "A night you'll never forget, because it's gonna be one you won't be able to remember." While I was trying to get my mind around never forgetting something I can't remember, I saw a sign that said "Schizophrenics Against Orton" and I understood.

Alabama likes markers

The Birmingham crowd wasn't necessarily loud, but they were participating as several people qualified to compete for the sign of the night.

Early in the show, I saw "Orton Hears A Boo,", a clever take on the Dr. Seuss book, "Horton Hears a Who."

"Wetumpka Loves Batista" forced me to dig out the atlas to discover that Wetumpka, Alabama is a city in Elmore County with a population of 5,700 and apparently a few of them are quite fond of "The Animal."

One courageous fan proudly displayed "Wanna Know Me?" and then listed their number. At least, I'm assuming it was their number. They were either very lonely, very brave, or decided on a creative way to end a friendship.

"Unleash The Furry" is either very funny or the latest evidence in the case to have spellcheck on posters.

My favorite sign of the night required two people. One fan held "Bring Back Kennedy,", while another fan spaced perfectly away from him held another sign which simply said "Kennedy."

Well done, Birmingham.

Ah, remember way back when? You mean last week? Yeah. Good Times.

If you were watching closely, you did catch a glimpse of the man with the microphone as we saw the back of Kennedy during the footage of last week's ten-man tag team match. While John Cena and Batista handled Big Show in the ring, Jerry Lawler and an unemployed blond man with spiked hair were just beyond the ring.

Now, THAT'S a party!

The Miz continued his strong of solid vocal performances by giving John Cena several back-handed compliments. He accepted that Cena is widely popular, but went on to insist that he has done it by "capturing the heart of millions of nine-year old kids," and then congratulated him by lumping him in with the Jonas Brothers, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Hannah Montana.

The group seems to be totally disconnected from the WWE Universe, until you take a closer look. The Jonas Brothers were among the celebrities to send holiday wishes to the U.S. Troops overseas last Christmas via the WWE website.

Hannah Montana is portrayed by Miley Cyrus, whose father, Billy Ray is from Greenup County, the same area which also gave us the melodic tones of Jillian Hall.

As for a SpongeBob and WWE connection, the two sides haven't necessarily worked together (likely because SpongeBob refused to do a job to protect his long-term booking potential), Tom Kenney provides the voice of SpongeBob and he also appeared in the video for the Smashing Pumpkins song "Tonight, Tonigh.t. The lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins is Billy Corgan, who is also a big wrestling fan. He attending a Hall of Fame event several years ago and the band provided the theme song for TNA's pay-per-view "Bound For Glory."

Suddenly, the group seems rather reasonable.

I'll have what he's having

During their exchange before the U.S. Title match, Kofi Kingston referenced MVP's prom date, while MVP countered by insisting that Kingston had been drinking too much Red Stripe. We looked closer at the prom experience of MVP and Sherri Shephard from "The View," including a photograph, complete with corsage. As for MVP's dig at Kingston, Red Stripe is a Jamaican beer, which has provided refreshment and entertaining TV commercials. It has also been the sponsor of items as diverse as reggae festivals, bobsled teams, and the International Festival of Thumb Wrestling held annually in Mason City, Iowa.

The Edge

When Jerry Lawler argued that he would give MVP a little edge in experience in his match with Kingston, he was correct, if you base it solely on each man's debut. Kingston started wrestling in 2005, while the man now known as Montel Vontavious Porter started in 2002.

Hog Heaven History

It was good to see WWE acknowledge that they've gone down this same slop-covered road before with isolated footage of past Hog Pen matches, but I was disappointed that H only stood for Hogs in the video. Triple H, then with the full name of Hunter Hearst Helmsley, defeated Henry O. Godwinn in a match that was nominated for a Slammy. Apparently, all we have left are the memories.

Yes, actually I can dig it.

Although we didn't get too deep of a look inside the new "Macho Man" Randy Savage DVD, on first glance it doesn't appear that WWE will have a negative portrayal similar to the Ultimate Warrior project. The promo touched on the usual Savage wordplay, include several which caught the ear of The Microscope.

"Too hot to handle. Too cold to hold" was also sung by a different kind of macho man as part of The Ghostbusters II soundtrack. Bobby Brown used the line as part of the song "On Our Own."

"Freak out, freak out" was also an integral part of a popular, yet often wrongly named, song of the 1970s. Chic had a #1 hit with the song not named "Freak Out," but actually entitled "Le Freak".

"Tower of Power, too sweet to be sour" contains a solid reference to "Tower of Power," a band from California known for its horns and who recently celebrated 40 years or recording together.

I'm certainly not claiming to know that Savage was thinking of these songs before he used the phrases, nor am I claiming to know what Savage was thinking at any point of the last 30 years, but clearly he has a musical connection. If you don't believe me, try this the next time you attend commencement exercises at a high school or college. When they play a certain song, likely at the start of the ceremony, are you thinking of graduates ready to receive their diplomas, or are you waiting to hear "from Sarasota, Florida..."

Anything that brings "The Macho Man" to a three hour ceremony in a hot gymnasium featuring a county commissioner as a guest speaker imploring everyone to "dream big?" Now THAT'S funky like a monkey.



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

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