WWE Raw Review - 17th March 2008

Two weeks away from Wrestlemania and the last week of Triple Threat Takeover, I was really looking forward to this week’s Raw and it delivered in spades with their best offering for some time. The show with a few minor exceptions was well paced and very entertaining and developed a lot of feuds nicely for Mania.

Good Points

A push for Jericho

With only two episodes of Raw to go before Mania it was great to see him opening the show with his Highlight Reel section. His guest this week was the Big Show and after a good war of words between the two a match was made between them for later on in the show for the Intercontinental title. After being poorly handled since his return I hope they continue his push and that he wins ‘Money in the Bank’ at Mania.

Good storyline development

With a few exceptions all the matches served well to develop storylines for Wrestlemania. Umaga was dominant again beating Kendrik and London, Jericho got himself disqualified to keep the belt but ended up being knocked out after one punch from the big Show and HBK came and made the save for Ric Flair to prevent him getting fired after Flair had asked him not to.

JBL the one man Heat machine

His match with Colin Delaney may have been pointless, you make think he is an idiot and you may think that he wrestling ability is limited at best but one thing JBL can do is work a crowd. His mic and character work as a heel are awesome and after only recently coming back to the active roster he is already one of the most hated heels on Raw.

Great Ending

TNA really need to watch this episode of Raw as they showed how to end a show. An ending of a show should be crazy with lots of things happening like this week’s episode of Raw had but when the cameras go off air the viewers need a definitive image and happening which they got. I thought Cena and Orton’s match against the entire Raw roster was well booked and kept both of them strong whilst still keeping it believable. We also finally ended a Raw with HHH on top after laying the beat on Orton and Cena after their match.

Bad Points

No Mayweather

With Mayweather costing the WWE millions of dollars to bring in you thought they would be getting better use out of him. With this being the match that has got the media attention for Wrestlemania they need him on their weekly shows to get their money’s worth. Now his non appearance may have been because of a contractual reason but if the WWE invested all this cash in him and not to have it put in a contract that he had to be on every Raw before Mania makes no sense.

Two people with the combined age of hundred having a wrestling match on Raw isn’t the best idea.

The Vince McMahon vs. Ric Flair was one of the most shockingly awful matches I have seen on raw and was only saved by HBK in the end. The match looked weak and was very slow. I know they did it to cash in on Vince’s induction on to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood but the match must have left every wrestling fan across the world hiding behind the sofa because of it’s cringeworthyness.

What to do with Santino

Santino Marella was in three segments of Raw this week normally it is main event stars that get this amount of segments in a show. By putting him in a number of segments it’s obvious the WWE like him but they won’t put him in a full blown singles match and is yet to have a proper one on one feud. I fear in a minute he may be the next Taz who came over to be a wrestler but was soon moved to other duties which now see him as a commentator.

Overall

The WWE did the most important things right and built the right matches for mania. Would have liked to have seen Batista on the show to develop his feud with Umaga but at least I got see a minute or so of Burchill. If the WWE just iron out these little issues they could have the best Raw for some time next week.