TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
CALDWELL'S TAKE
CORNER CUBE TUESDAY 8/26 - Raw delivered highlights, but was heavy on filler Aug 26, 2008 - 9:12:46 AM
Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.
Updated Tuesday, August 26
Raw Roundtable Score - 5.5
The highlights of this week's Raw were the C.M. Punk vs. JBL opening match, the latest from the Jericho-Michaels program, and the little bits and pieces of Santonisms we are privileged to experience each week. The rest felt like filler on a show to simply keep the train rolling toward Unforgiven while on a different network up against the NFL, U.S. Open Tennis, and a political party gathering in Denver for a meeting of some sort.
Michaels-Jericho continues to be simply awesome. As Greg Parks suggested in the Raw post-game show, WWE needs to put together a DVD of this feud - the storylines, the promos, the matches, etc. - to showcase how you put together a program that draws emotions from the audience and allows the wrestlers to showcase the best of their abilities.
Michaels's mannerisms begging Jericho for a match where he could do legal damage was simply great. Jericho maintaining the evil comic book heel persona on the video screen enhanced his image as a calculating villain. I don't care if they ever have a match, as long as the program continues to build on TV each week.
Meanwhile, C.M. Punk continues to develop into a main event World champion role. He had another outstanding TV match to follow last week's main event against Chris Jericho, but the only problem was the lack of explanation for why a Summerslam re-match of Punk vs. JBL was taking place two weeks later. No wrestling promotion should simply throw a PPV re-match on free TV within two weeks without build-up or explanation for its presence. WWE dropped the ball in that respect, but Punk and JBL had a fine opening match.
Losing John Cena creates a major void on Raw, and it was quite obvious this week. We were left with a filler-filled episode of TV, which became official when Jim Duggan returned from a near-two-month absence to pick up a storyline that disappeared seemingly months ago.
Batista is a star, but he's not The Star like Cena has been for WWE. Cena just has whatever "it" is that makes him a leader of the WWE brand. I suppose that's why they're rushing Rey Mysterio back on TV despite undermining any sense of logic to the Kane-killed-Rey storyline. Kane's storyline has been incomprehensible for weeks, so WWE might as well throw another haymaker to the gut of logic by having Adamle nonchalantly bring back Rey in a World Title match.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
